Sports

Andujar responds to benching to lead Rice past Molloy

Dwayne Mitchell made a move Tuesday with the postseason in mind. The Rice coach didn’t like the sluggishness he saw from starting swingman Emmanuel Andujar at the start and immediately yanked him from the game.

“They need a sense of urgency,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want to be sitting in there in the locker room with tissues at the end of the season. I gotta push those guys to understand that you don’t want those feelings, that you didn’t give it your all and we lost. Emotions set in and your high-school career is over on a loss.”

A CHSAA Class AA game against Archbishop Molloy on the road didn’t have much finality to it. But Mitchell got his point across nicely.

Andujar came back into the game for the second half and scored eight of his 14 points in a key third quarter to lead Rice to a 67-55 win over the Stanners at Jack Curran Gymnasium, a place always hostile for opposing teams.

“Lesson learned,” Andujar said. … “I felt like I was playing too laid back. Eventually it caught on. I had to step it up in the second half.”

With Rice (15-9, 7-4 NY) ahead just 38-35 with 3:51 left in the third, Andujar caught fire. He scored eight straight points on drives, jumpers and putbacks to keep his team in front heading into the fourth quarter.

“He stepped it up,” Mitchell said. “He showed me. You gotta give him credit that he went out there in the second half and played a certain way.”

Molloy senior Chris Garcia got his team within 46-45 with 1:21 left in the third, but the Stanners didn’t convert multiple opportunities to take the lead heading into the fourth. Instead, Richard Council made a pair of free throws to finish the frame and begin a 10-2 run that gave Rice a 56-47 lead with 6:09 to go. Cincinnati-bound guard Jermaine Sanders had six points during the spurt.

“Jermaine is going to Cincinnati,” Mitchell said. “Jermaine is going to the Big East. It’s not really an option for him not to play at a high level. He wants to play right away in college. I think he understands. I reinforce that with him all the time, I say, ‘Jermaine you gotta play like a Big East player’ and I think he did that.”

Sanders finished with 23 points and Devaughn Reid added 14 points and four straight free throws to seal the victory with under a minute left in the game. Andujar was also 4-of-4 from the line down the stretch as Molloy (13-11, 4-9 BQ), which played Christ the King close and went into overtime with St. Raymond at home, was attempting to mount a comeback.

“I know going down the stretch with a team like that they’re always gonna get the calls,” Sanders said. “They’re at their home gym. I wanted to get it out of reach, so it didn’t come down to the refs making calls at the end of the game.”

Saint Rose-bound forward Chris Dorgler had 13 points and George Davis had 12 points for Molloy, which will play Bishop Loughlin in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan tournament first round Monday at Holy Cross.

Sanders was heckled mercilessly by the crowd and Andujar was pinned to the bench, yet Rice made all the big plays down the stretch in the second half to win the game relatively easily. Mitchell wasn’t completely happy – he spent a long time talking to his players in a classroom afterward.

But it was a victory against a well-coached team that plays extremely well at home. And it could be a positive sign for things to come.

“I think we haven’t played our best basketball yet – it’s been kind of up and down,” Sanders said. “I think it’s time for us to peak right now.”

mraimondi@nypost.com