Box Score For the first ten games, the Fordham Rams were looking for one of the seniors to step up and take control. They may have found their man tonight as
Bryant Dunston netted 24 points and added 14 rebounds, both season highs, including five straight points after Binghamton took a one-point lead, to lead Fordham to a 72-60 win over the Bearcats in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the win, the Rams go to 6-5 on the year while Binghamton falls to 3-8.
"This was a gutsy game for us," said head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "We didn't play well last game and hadn't been shooting well. Tonight we shot 54 percent from the field and showed some character and didn't panic when they made that comeback."
The Rams led by 17 at the break, 39-22, their largest lead of the night, before the Bearcats came all the way back to take a one-point lead, 47-46, on a Reggie Fuller lay-up with 10:49 remaining.
Fordham opened the second half by maintaining the 17-point lead, the last time coming at 44-27, following a Brenton Butler lay-up 1:50 into the half.
Binghamton then scored 12 straight points to cut the Fordham lead to five, 44-39, on a Mike Gordon dunk with 14:42 left in the game. Dwayne Jackson and Lazar Trifunovic each netted four points in the Bearcats run.
A pair of Dunston free throws six seconds later stopped the Binghamton run before Richard Forbes and Jackson hit three-pointers over the next 1:30 to slice the Fordham lead to one, 46-45, with 12:23 remaining.
The Fuller lay-up then gave the Bearcats their only lead of the night, 47-46, before Dunston answered with a jumper with 10:18 left and a three-pointer 35 seconds later to put the Rams up by four, 51-47.
Binghamton would get the lead down to one, 56-55, on a Gordon three-pointer with 7:31 remaining and trailed by only two, 62-60, following a Forbes three-pointer with five minutes left.
But the Fordham defense dug in, not allowing the Bearcats to score a point over the final five minutes while Marcus Stout scored four points and Butler and Sebastian Greene three each as the Rams closed out the game with a 10-0 run.
The first half was all Fordham as the Rams held the Bearcats to shooting just 35.7% (10-28) from the field while building the 39-22 halftime advantage.
The double-double was Dunston's second of the year and the 26th of his career. Butler added 16 points and four rebounds for the Rams while Greene finished with 12 points and three rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Monday, December 31st as they travel to Washington, D.C. to face the eighth-ranked Georgetown University Hoyas at 2:00 p.m. in the Verizon Center.
Notes
The game was the first match-up on the hardwood between the two schools...The game also wraps up a five-game homestand for the Rams who went 3-2 in the five games...Binghamton turned the ball over 12 times in the game and the Rams have now forced their opponents to commit 80 turnovers over the past four games...Dunston's previous season high for points was 20 which he did twice, the last time coming in the loss at Syracuse...His previous season high for rebounds was 10 in the Central Missouri win...The 14 rebounds are the most for Dunston since he grabbed 14 against St. Francis (NY) last year...The 24 points brings Dunston's career total to 1,542, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time list, 155 points behind Ken Charles for fifth place...Dunston's 14 rebounds brings his career total to 793, good for seventh on the Fordham all-time list, eight behind Damon Lopez who grabbed 8-1 career rebounds...Dunston also blocked two shots in the game and now has 20 blocks over the past five games and 246 in his career, 12 behind Lopez for the Fordham all-time record...Marcus Stout finished with eight points to bring his career total to 1,418, good for ninth place on the all-time list, 17 behind Fred Herzog.
