Box Score Nov. 16, 2007
Box Score
When one walks into the Carrier Dome they're overwhelmed by the color orange. Everything from the walls to the court to the wigs worn by some of the fans is highlighted in orange. But it was another color which had the Fordham Rams seeing red on Friday night. It was green, as in Syracuse freshman forward Donte Greene, who netted a game-high 25 points while also grabbing nine rebounds to lead the Orange to an 80-63 win over Fordham.
The loss drops the Rams to 2-2 on the year while the 25th-ranked Orange improve to 3-0.
"You've got to bring your A game when you play a top-25 team," said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "We had some opportunities tonight but couldn't take advantage of them and when we gave Syracuse opportunities they did. They're a very good team with some great players."
Fordham got off to a hot start, jumping out to an 11-5 lead following a Bryant Dunston jumper with 16:54 left in the first. Nine of the first 11 Fordham points cane from three pointers, with Brenton Butler hitting two and Marcus Stout one, as the Rams shot over the Syracuse zone.
"We practiced against the zone to prepare for the game and I changed the starting line-up to get Brenton Butler in the game for his shooting," said Whittenburg. "It worked in that we got them to come out of their zone but the bad news for us was that they played even better in man-to-man."
Fordham would have opened with an even bigger lead if not for Greene, who netted the Orange's first eleven points. After Greene scored his eleventh point to cut the Syracuse lead to two, 13-11, Stout responded with a three, putting the Rams back up by five, 16-11, with 13:54 remaining in the period.
An Eric Devendorf three-pointer and an Arinze Onuaku lay-up over the next minute knotted the game at 16 for the Orange.
After Dunston put the Rams up two, 18-16, with a pair of free throws with 12:28 left in the half, Syracuse used an 18-5 run to take a 34-23 lead on two Devendorf free throws seven minutes later.
A Chris Bethel three-pointer got the Fordham deficit back to single figures before a Devendorf basket bumped the Orange lead back to ten, 36-26, with 2:24 left.
Herb Tanner drained a three-pointer 29 seconds later to pull the Rams to within seven, 36-29, but the Orange scored the final seven points of the half to take a 43-29 lead into the break.
Syracuse increased the lead to 16, 47-31, to open the second half before the Rams used a Dunston lay-up and a Stout three-pointer to cut the Orange advantage back to 11, 47-36, 3:38 into the second half.
The Rams would get to within 11 three more times over the next five minutes, the final time at 57-46 following a Butler three with 11:43 remaining. But the Orange would score five straight points over the next four minutes to take a 16-point lead, 62-46, on a pair of Paul Harris free throws with 7:44 remaining and they would build the lead to as many as 20 before the Rams cut it to the final 17-point deficit.
Dunston led the Rams with 20 points and nine rebounds while Butler finished with 16, hitting four three-pointers, and Stout, who also had four treys, added 12 points and seven assists.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, November 24th, as they host the College of Charleston in the Rose Hill Gym at 1:00 PM in their first home contest of the year.
Notes
The Orange now lead the all-time series, 26-16...It was the first meting between Fordham and Syracuse since November 27, 1982...The Rams tied a season-high with 11 three-pointers in the game...The 20 points by Dunston brings his career total to 1,448, moving him ahead of Fred Herzog and Jean Prioleau and into sixth place on the Fordham all-time scoring list while his nine rebounds gives him 740 all-time, good for ninth place on Fordham's all-time list, three behind Bill Carlson...The 20-point output was Dunston's second 20-point game of the season and the 21st of his career...The 12 points scored by Stout brings his career total to 1,339, moving him ahead of Bill Langheld and Bob Melvin and into tenth place on the all-time scoring list at Fordham...The seven assists by Stout ties his career-high, first set at Penn last winter...The start was the first career start for Butler, who has appeared in all 34 games since arriving at Fordham.
