Box Score Feb. 14, 2008
Final Stats |
AP Gallery 
Maybe John Pugh should show up every time Fordham plays at Massachusetts. The last time the former Rams appeared at the Mullins Center, he helped Fordham to a 66-60 win over the Minutemen on January 26, 1999, Fordham's first ever Atlantic 10 road win. Tonight, with Pugh, who is in graduate school at MIT pursuing a Master's Degree in Architecture, in attendance, the Rams picked up their first Atlantic 10 road win of the season with a 76-72 victory over Massachusetts in front of a nationally televised audience on ESPN2.
With the win, the Rams snap a four-game losing streak and go to 9-12 overall, 3-6 in the Atlantic 10, while Massachusetts falls to 15-9, 4-6 in the conference.
For the second straight game Fordham matched-up with one of the top scoring offenses in the conference and for the second straight game, the Rams held their opponent to under its scoring average. Massachusetts entered the game averaging 82.4 ppg, second best in the Atlantic 10, but the Fordham defense put the clamps on the Minutemen, holding them to shooting 41.2% (28-68) from the field while the Rams shot a sizzling 57.7% in the decisive second half. The Rams also kept the Minutemen off the boards, outrebounding Massachusetts, 42-33 in the game, 19-11 in the second half.
The Rams were led by Marcus Stout who netted a team-high 22 points while Bryant Dunston and Sebastian Greene each finished with a double-double. Dunston scored 15 points and added 13 rebounds for his Atlantic 10-leading ninth double-double of the year while Greene, who didn't start for the first time all season, added 13 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. It was the second time this season that the two turned in a double-double in the same game, the first coming at Duquesne on January 9th.
The second half was a back-and-forth affair, with three ties and nine lead changes, the last coming when Brenton Butler answered a Ricky Harris three-pointer for UMass with one of his own to give Fordham a 68-67 lead with 2:35 remaining.
A little over a minute later, Stout converted a Minuteman turnover into a three-point play, putting the Rams up four, 71-67, with1:49 left.
The Rams had a chance to expand the lead but missed a pair of free throws with just under a minute remaining before Dante Mulligan made it a two-point game for UMass, 71-69, with a layup with 42 seconds left in the contest.
Nine seconds later, as Massachusetts was pressuring the Rams in the backcourt, Butler found a wide open Greene down court and a Greene dunk put the Rams back up by four, 73-69.
The Minutemen quickly pushed the ball up the court and Gary Forbes was fouled with 31 seconds remaining, cutting the Fordham lead back to two has he hit a pair of free throws.
Fordham was able to get the ball into the front court before Butler was fouled with 16 seconds left and he converted one of two free throws to put Fordham up three, 74-71.
With ten seconds left, Mulligan hit one of two free throws to pull Massachusetts to within two, 74-72, but Stout nailed a pair of charity shots for the Rams two seconds later to make it a 76-72 final.
Massachusetts jumped out to an 11-4 lead, scoring seven straight points over a two minute span in the first half to turn a 4-4 tie into a seven-point lead.
The Rams answered with a 7-1 spurt, capped by a Butler three-pointer with 13:34 left in the half to cut the Fordham deficit to one, 12-11. But the Minutemen would outscore the Rams 13-5 over the next five minutes to take their biggest lead of the night, 25-16.
Fordham didn't back down, scoring the next eight points to make it a one-point game, 25-24, on a Dunston layup with 5:46 left before intermission.
Later in the half, four Greene free throws over a 1:27 span gave Fordham a three-point lead, 30-27, and it looked like the Rams would bring a lead into the break before Etienne Brower hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Minutemen a 34-32 halftime lead.
Brower would extend the Massachusetts lead to five with another three-pointer 34 seconds into the second half but the Rams would come back to tie the game at 39, the first of the three ties in the half, just under four minutes into the period on a Mike Moore free throw.
Butler also finished in double digits for the Rams, netting 12 points.
The Rams will next be in action on Sunday, February 17th as they host the Charlotte 49ers in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym at 6:00 p.m.
Notes
The win snaps a two-game winning streak in the all-time series for Massachusetts, who still leads the all-time series, 22-11...The win was Fordham's third in 16 games in Amherst...The Rams made 22 free throws in the game to eight for the Minutemen...The 42 rebounds ties a season-high for Fordham, who also had 42 against Central Missouri and Temple...The 11 rebounds for Greene ties his career-high which he set earlier this year against Robert Morris...The Rams are now 4-6 in televised games this year and a perfect 7-0 when scoring more than 70 points...Dunston's 15 points brings his career total to 1,695, good for sixth place on the Fordham all-time list, two points behind Ken Charles...Dunston's 12 rebounds brings his career total to 911, good for fifth place on the Fordham career rebounding list, six behind John Stevens...He had recorded double figures in rebounds in ten of the past eleven games...Dunston also blocked two shots in the game and has blocked at least one shot in 20 of the 21 games this season, including 46 over the past 15 games...Dunston is averaging 16.1 ppg and 12.1 rpg over the past eleven games...Stout's 22 points brings his career total to 1,594, good for seventh place on the all-time list...His three three-pointers in the game gives him 237 for his career, placing him second on the Fordham all-time list.
