Box Score Dec. 2, 2007
Final Stats
Bronx, N.Y. -
There was one former men's basketball player who was happy at today's Fordham-Robert Morris game. Unfortunately for current Ram fans, that former player turned out to be the head coach of Robert Morris University. Mike Rice, a 1991 Fordham graduate who was a four-year member of the men's basketball squad, brought his Colonials into the Rose Hill Gym and left with a 72-66 win.
With the loss, the Rams fall to 3-4 on the year while Robert Morris improves to 5-2.
After holding Manhattan to shooting 37.7% in a 66-57 win on Wednesday, the Fordham defense didn't have the same luck with Robert Morris as the Colonials shot 56.9% (29-51) in the game.
"Too many guys were not thinking about defense today," said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "We can't win unless we play solid defense and we haven't been doing that too much this year."
With the score tied at 61 and 6:16 remaining, Robert Morris scored six straight points, ignited by an A.J. Jackson lay-up with 5:45 left and followed by a Bateko Francisco three-pointer 1:30 later. Jackson capped the spurt by hitting one of two free throws with 3:27 remaining.
A Mike Moore three-pointer with just over three minutes left cut the Fordham deficit back to three, 67-64, before Francisco hit one of two free throws to make it a four-point game with 1:43 remaining.
Bryant Dunston pulled the Rams to within two, 68-66, with a lay-up nine seconds later, and the Rams defense stopped the Colonials on their next possession. But a Sebastian Greene three-point attempt with 45 seconds left bounced out and Robert Morris sealed the game with a Jeremy Chappell lay-up with 22 seconds on the clock.
Fordham opened the game with a 7-2 lead over the first 2:44, with four of those points from Dunston, before the Colonials scored six straight to take an 8-7 lead on a Tony Lee lay-up 4:16 into the contest.
The lead would change hands nine times over the next ten minutes before the Rams used a 6-0 spurt to take a 32-27 lead following a Marcus Stout jumper with 4:09 left in the half.
Later in the half, Robert Morris ran off six straight points to take a 35-34 lead with 1:37 left before one free throw from Brenton Butler and two from Sebastian Greene gave Fordham a 37-35 lead with just under a minute remaining. But the Colonials tied the game at the break on a Chappell jumper at the buzzer.
Dunston led the Rams with 15 points, seven rebounds and five blocks while Butler finished with 14 points and Greene added 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, December 5th as they host the Hofstra University Pride in the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 PM.
Notes
This was the first ever meeting between Fordham and Robert Morris on the hardwood...The game is the first of a five-game homestand for the Rams, the team's longest homestand since the 1979-80 team closed out the regular season with five straight home games...Chappell finished with 25 points for the Colonials, tying the highest output for a Fordham opponent on the year...Dunston's 15 points brings his career total to 1,484, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time list...Stout closed out the game with six points to bring his career total to 1,367, placing him in tenth place on the list...Dunston's seven rebounds up his career total to 759, jumping him over Sanford Jenkins and into seventh place on the Fordham all-time rebounding list...The five blocks brings Dunston's career total to 231, 27 behind Fordham's all-time leader, Damon Lopez, who recorded 258 blocked shots from 1988-91.
