Box Score Dec. 8, 2007
Final Stats
Bronx, N.Y. - The good news for the 2007-08 Fordham men's basketball Rams is that after two home losses, they seem to have found some success, winning their past two games in the Rose Hill Gym, including today's 88-44 victory over the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The bad news is that Fordham will have two weeks off for finals before the Rams play their next game.
"It's good to go into the break with a lot of positives," said head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "We've won a couple of games and now have to concentrate on academics before we refocus on basketball."
With the win, the Rams improve to 5-4 on the year while NJIT falls to 0-11.
The 44-point margin of victory is the fourth largest margin in Fordham history, surpassing a 100-57 win over Tufts by the 1981-82 squad. The largest margin of victory for the Rams was a 56-point win over Rochester (128-72) on December 30, 1970.
Brenton Butler led the Rams with a game-high 21 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field, while Marcus Stout added 16 points as Fordham shot 51.9% (27-52) from the field, including 44.0% (11-25) from behind the three-point arc. The game marked the third time this season that the Rams connected for 11 three-pointers.
Fordham also took care of the glass, outrebounding the Highlanders, 39-29, grabbing 28 defensive rebounds.
"It was good to see us take care of what's important and that is defensive rebounding," said Whittenburg. "If we don't take care of the defensive glass it's hard to win."
The game marked the 100th appearance for four Fordham seniors (Kevin Anderson, Bryant Dunston, Sebastian Greene and Marcus Stout) but for the second straight game, Whittenburg started a younger line-up which included Greene, junior Luke Devine, sophomores Herb Tanner and Butler and freshman Mike Moore.
The younger line-up jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead 3:47 into the game, behind five points from Butler, and when the seniors entered the game a minute later, they bumped the lead up to 12, 18-6, following a Butler three-pointer.
A Jheryl Wilson lay-up and a Nesho Milosevic jumper over the next two minutes cut the Fordham advantage back to eight, 18-10, with 12:11 left in the half.
The Highlanders would cut the Fordham lead back to eight twice more over the next two minutes before the Rams scored 14 straight points to turn a 22-14 lead into a 36-14 advantage with 6:15 remaining following a pair of Dunston free throws. Stout led the run with five points.
Fordham took a 20-point lead into the break, 41-21, and quickly expanded the lead to 30 early in the second half by opening the period with a 10-0 spurt, led by four points from Butler.
The Rams led by 30 again later in the period, 60-30, when a Dan Landisch three-pointer ignited a 13-0 Fordham run as the Rams went up by 43, 73-30, with 8:17 remaining on a Moore three-pointer.
Dunston finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four blocks for the Rams while Moore added 14 points and six rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, December 22nd, as they host the UNC Greensboro Spartans in the Rose Hill Gym at 1:00 PM.
Notes The game was the first ever meeting between the two schools on the hardwood...The 44 points scored by the Highlanders are the fewest for a Fordham opponent since Richmond scored 37 in an Atlantic 10 Championship first round loss to the Rams on March 8, 2006...Fordham took advantage of 23 NJIT turnovers to score 34 points...The Rams have now forced their opponents to commit 50 turnovers over the past two games...Dunston's 13 points brings his career total to 1,508, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time list while his nine rebounds brings his career total to 770, good for seventh on the Fordham all-time list...Stout's 16 points bring his career total to 1,405, good for ninth place on the all-time list...Dunston's four blocks brings his career total to 237, 21 behind Fordham's all-time leader, Damon Lopez, who recorded 258 blocked shots from 1988-91...The six assists for Dunston was one shy of his career-high of seven, recorded at Holy Cross in 2005.
