When I caught up with Rider coach Tommy Dempsey Saturday morning, he was enjoying a celebratory breakfast at Memphis International Airport.
Dempsey and the Rider Broncs pulled off the biggest win in program history Friday night when they went into Starkville and beat defending Southeastern Conference champion Mississippi State, 88-74.
The win happened on the same night the No. 18 Bulldogs raised the banner from their 2008-09 SEC championship.
“I have to say it’s got to rank up there,” Dempsey said by phone. “It’s the first win over a nationally-ranked program as far as we can tell. It’s certainly the biggest win in recent history.”
Mike Ringgold (pictured) and Novar Gadson scored 21 points each for Rider, which returned four starters from a 19-win team.
“I really thought we could be competitive,” Dempsey said. “I thought it would be a game. I didn’t expect to control the game as much as we did. But I did think we could compete with them.”
Dempsey credited Ryan Thompson (16 points) and the rest of his team with taking care of the ball and not allowing the Bulldogs to score off turnovers.
“We just did such a good job of taking care of the basketball,” he said. “We had no turnovers in the second half. When a team is down nothing fuels runs like turnovers and bad shots.
“We took one bad shot and had zero turnovers in the second half and they couldn’t get anything going. It helps your transition defense.”
Holding a 59-55 lead,Thompson hit two 3’s during an 11-3 run to give the Broncs a 12-point advantage that held up.
“That place was packed. It really got loud,” said Thompson, the younger brother of Sacamento Kings forward Jason Thompson. “They had a whole lot of people cheering them on and we kind of took the life out of the crowd.”
Mississippi State was without freshmen big men John Riek and Renardo Sidney. Riek must sit an NCAA-mandated nine games for amateurism issues and the NCAA continues to investigate Sidney’s family’s finances after they moved from Mississippi to California for his senior year of high school.
Jarvis Varnado led the Bulldogs with 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots, but Mississippi State managed just 10 field goals in the second half.
“Varnado killed us,” Dempsey said.
Rider returns home to face Lehigh on Monday before playing at Virginia (Thursday) and at No. 4 Kentucky (Nov. 21) in the Cancun Challenge. The Broncs leave for Cancun itself the following Sunday for two more games.
Could more upsets be in store?
“This year we’re planning on getting all the way to the NCAA Tournament,” Thompson said. “Whether it’s a team that’s nationally ranked or not nationally ranked, we’ve got to keep that same mindset and gotta go out there and try and get a win.”
(The AP contributed)
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
