Richmond, Va. – Edgar Allen Poe, who spent time both in the Bronx and in Richmond, once said, "If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered." Well the Fordham University men's basketball team will try to remember in order to forget VCU's Justin Tillman, who scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the home Rams to a 76-63 win over Fordham in the Atlantic 10 opener for both teams at the E.J. Wade Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 5-8 overall on the year while VCU improves to 9-5.
Senior guard
Will Tavares paced the Rams with a team-high 20 points while senior guard
Perris Hicks (13), junior guard
Joseph Chartouny (11) and junior forward
Prokop Slanina (10) also scored in double figures for Fordham with Slanina adding seven rebounds and three steals.
Trailing by 20 at the half, Fordham outscored VCU 21-8 to open the second half, cutting the deficit to seven, 56-49, following a Tavares three at the 12:21 mark.
The home Rams responded with a 9-1 spurt to bump the lead to 15, 65-50, with 8:10 remaining but, later in the period, Fordham used an 11-1 run to halve a 16-point deficit to eight, 70-62, on a Chartouny layup with 2:46 left but that was as close as Fordham would get.
Playing in front of another sellout VCU crowd, the home team opened the game with a 15-5 run to get the crowd involved before Fordham scored eleven of the next 15 points to whittle the VCU advantage down to three, 19-16, following a Hicks layup at the 9:23 mark.
Fordham was trailing by five, 26-21, with six minutes left in the first half before VCU closed out the half with a 22-7 run to take the 48-28 lead at the intermission.
Takeaways
Will Tavares, who leads the Rams averaging 17.0 ppg, has netted double figures in all 13 games this year.
The 20-point game was Tavares' third this year.
Tavares scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half, shooting 7-for-12 from the field over the final 20 minutes.
Joseph Chartouny, who entered the game leading the NCAA in steals (3.67/game), recorded a pair of steals today to bring his season total to 46. He has recorded at least one steal in every game this year.
The Rams, who have been hit hard by the injury bug this year, played without the services of sophomore guard
Tre Evans, who suffered an injury in the first half of the game at West Virginia.
The starting lineup of Tavares-Chartouny-Raut-Hicks-Slanina was the fifth different starting lineup used by the Rams this year.
All the free throws attempted in the game were from shooting fouls (VCU committed just five fouls in the first half and six in the second while Fordham was whistled for five in the first half and seven in the second, the seventh coming with 43 seconds remaining).
VCU now leads the all-time series, 7-1.
Former Ram Dan Blaine was in attendance.
By the Numbers
3 – Steals by both
Prokop Slanina, who matched his career-high, and
Ivan Raut, a season-high.
12 – Steals recorded by Fordham, the eighth time in 13 games that the Rams have recorded a double figure steal total.
13 – Points scored by
Perris Hicks, a season-high (previous high was 12 against Manhattan).
14 – Rebounds by VCU's Justin Tillman, tying two others for the most rebounds by a Fordham opposing player this year.
19 – Defensive rebounds for the Rams, a season-low.
35-28 – Scoring totals for Fordham and VCU in the second half as Fordham held the home team to shooting 34.5% (10-29) in the half after VCU shot 66.7% (18-27) in the first 20 minutes.
109 –Consecutive sellouts for VCU at the Siegel Center.
196 - Career steals for
Joseph Chartouny, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time steals list.
358 – Career assists for
Joseph Chartouny, good for ninth on the Fordham all-time assists list.
What's Next?
The Rams return to the historic Rose Hill Gym on Wednesday, January 3, as they host the University of Richmond Spiders in an Atlantic 10 contest at 7:00 p.m.
The game will be the 27th meeting between the two schools.
Richmond leads the all-time series, 19-7 and has won the past 14 meetings.
