Box Score Dec. 5, 2007
Box Score
Bronx, N.Y. -
After two losses over the past three games, Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg decided to shake up his starting line-up. Instead of starting four seniors (Marcus Stout, Bryant Dunston, Sebastian Greene and Kevin Anderson) and one sophomore (Brenton Butler), Whittenburg started a younger line-up, which included Greene and Butler along with junior Luke Devine, sophomore Herb Tanner and freshman Mike Moore against Hofstra University tonight.
But the Fordham seniors proved the old basketball adage that it's not who starts, it's who finishes that's important as Stout netted a team-high 22 points, shooting 8-for-12 from the field, while Dunston added 11 points to lead Fordham to a 73-71 win over Hofstra in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the win, the Rams even their record at 4-4 on the year while the Pride falls to 1-4.
"The last couple of games I didn't think the seniors were giving us the energy and effort we needed," said Whittenburg. "Tonight the younger guys who started did and that carried over when I put the seniors in. And when the seniors were on the bench they responded exactly as I knew they would and that is by cheering for the rest of the team. That's the kind of character they have."
The seniors helped the Rams build a 21-point lead, 44-23, following a Stout three-pointer 2:38 into the second half only to see Antoine Agudio, who scored 30 of his game-high 36 points in the half, almost single-handedly lead Hofstra back as the Pride got as close as one, 56-55, after an Agudio three-point play with 7:39 remaining.
But the Fordham seniors dug in as Stout responded with a three-pointer a minute later to boost the Fordham lead up to four and Anderson followed with a steal and dunk to make it a 61-55 game with 6:04 left.
The Rams bumped the advantage up to seven on a Greene free throw with 5:23 remaining and Fordham led by six, 65-59, following a pair of Dunston free throws three minutes later.
An Agudio three-pointer with 2:14 left cut the Hofstra deficit in half but a Stout lay-up brought the Fordham lead back to five, 67-62, with just under two minutes remaining.
But the Pride wouldn't back down, using a Charles Jenkins three-point play with 38 seconds left to make it a two-point game, 67-65, before Dunston hit a pair of free throws to put the Fordham lead back at four, 69-65, with 14 ticks left on the clock.
Agudio took the inbounds pass following Dunston's free throws and drove in for a lay-up with eight seconds left but Butler buried two free throws with two seconds left to seal the win for the Rams.
Neither team started out all that strong offensively, as the score stood at 14-7 in Hofstra's favor halfway through the first half.
The Pride led again by seven, 16-9, two minutes later when the Fordham offense woke up, using a 10-2 run, led by a pair of three-pointers from Chris Bethel, to take a 20-16 lead on a Stout three-pointer with 5:30 remaining in the half.
Hofstra got the Fordham lead down to one, 22-21, with 3:33 left but a Stout three-pointer ignited another 10-2 run to close out the half as the Rams took a 32-23 lead into halftime.
The Rams opened the second half much like they finished the first, starting the period with a 12-2 spurt to take their biggest lead of the night, 44-23. Dunston led the run with five points.
Stout shot 4-for-7 from behind the three-point arch and he added two steals while Butler (11), Bethel (10) and Greene (10) also scored in double figures for the Rams. Butler also added six rebounds and a game-high five steals while Dunston, who was limited to 14 minutes due to foul trouble, and Greene each blocked a pair of shots.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, December 8th, as they host the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the Rose Hill Gym at 1:00 PM.
Notes
The Rams now lead the all-time series with Hofstra, 14-6...The game marked the first game that Dunston has not started since he arrived at Fordham in 2004-05...He had started 98 straight games prior to tonight while Stout had started 87 and Anderson 37...The game was the first career start for Tanner, Devine and Moore...Fordham took advantage of 27 Hofstra turnovers to score 30 points...The 36 points scored by Agudio are the most for a Fordham opponent since Temple's Lynn Greer scored 41 against the Rams on January 30, 2002...Dunston's 11 points brings his career total to 1,495, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time list...Stout's 22 points bring his career total to 1,389, moving him past Charlie Yelverton and into eighth place on the list...Dunston's two rebounds up his career total to 761, good for seventh place on the Fordham all-time rebounding list...The two blocks brings Dunston's career total to 233, 25 behind Fordham's all-time leader, Damon Lopez, who recorded 258 blocked shots from 1988-91.
