Rivier's Odarius Cade goes up for two against Hartford's Chidera George (23) and Joshua Petion during Tuesday night's non-conference game at the Muldoon Center. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The halftime message was clear in the spiffy revamped men’s basketball locker room at Rivier University on Tuesday night.

“We’ve got to play a lot faster,” Rivier coach Tom Glynn said, his team trailing Hartford University 35-33 at the time. “That wasn’t us at halftime, we ramped up our defense, picked up the speed on offense … That was us in the second half. We had to make it a fast-paced game.”

Message received. The Raiders came out blazing in the second half, embarking on a 17-0 run, holding Hartford scoreless for the first 5:23 en route to a 72-61 non-conference win.

“They had a little more jump in the second half to start and went on a big run, obviously,” Hartford coach Aaron Toomey said, the program filled with young players after dropping down from Division I to Division III 18 months ago. “That’s basketball, right? It’s a game of runs, but the run’s got to stop at six, seven, eight points instead of 17, 18, whatever it did. That was the big game changer there, obviously.”

Fasten your seat belts, fans, this Raider team, now 2-0, has about eight returnees from last year’s 15-12 team which posted the biggest improvement in the country from the 2-23 of 2022-23. But they added a ton of talent, including Plymouth State grad transfer and All-Conference Little East player Kyler Bosse. If that name sounds familiar, he’s the son of one of the Raider standouts from their early days some 30 years ago, Ketler Bosse.

“Honestly, I think a big credit was our bench, they were just screaming, yelling,” said Bosse, one of four Raiders in double figures with 10 points, and just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. “That’s like a big thing in basketball, the energy. Obviously on the floor, we were active, we were getting ball movement, we were scoring.”

What does it show to Glynn that the Raiders were able to shift gears so quickly in a game? Hartford, which was led by Troy Santos’ 16 points – Santos ended the Raider run with a traditional three-point play – had a big size advantage, outrebounding the Raiders 19-12 in the first half.

“Yeah, it’s coming together,” Glynn said. “We’ve got a lot of new guys, we’re very talented, we’ve got some great grad transfers that are very good players, juniors who transferred in … Tough non-conference schedule, but it’s coming together quickly this year, we’ve got to get better every day.”

One of the keys from last year, Odarius Cade, led the Raiders with 16 points while Joey Merrill added 15 and Matt Constant 14. The Raiders were picked fifth preseason in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, and time will tell.

Rivier’s Kyler Bosse (5) looks to put up a shot against Hartford’s Santos during Tuesday night’s non-conference game at the Muldoon Center. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“We retained our better players, our starters, brough in some elite transfers, got some good freshmen, and we’ll try to compete in the GNAC,” Glynn said.

Last night showed him a big intangible.

“We have fight, we have fight, we have fight,” Glynn said. “We’re going to compete with everybody. … We’re talented but it’s all got to come together now.”

Who knows, it could be a fun ride at the Muldoon. If Tuesday night is any indication, we know it’ll be a fast one.