Box Score
Final Stats
BRONX, N.Y. (March 1, 2008) - For the second straight game, the Fordham defense was facing one of the top scorers in the Atlantic 10. On Wednesday, the Rams had to shut down La Salle leading scorer Darnell Harris, who leads in the conference with 104 three-pointers. Tonight, the Rams were facing Dayton's Brian Roberts, who entered the game averaging over 19 points a game, third best in the conference, shooting 45.0% (77-171) from behind the three-point arc.
In each game, the Fordham defense accomplished its goal, holding Harris to just six points on Wednesday night and Roberts to 12 tonight. Unfortunately, the Fordham offense couldn't take advantage of the strong defense as the Rams fell to the Flyers, 57-50, in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 11-15 overall, 5-9 in the Atlantic 10, while Dayton improves to 18-9 overall, 6-8 in the conference. The Rams remain in a tie with George Washington, who fell to Xavier tonight, for 12th place in the conference and the final spot in the conference tournament.
"I definitely think we played good enough defense to win," said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "Kevin Anderson did a good containing Brian Roberts just like he did on Wednesday with Darnell Harris. But once again we didn't generate any offense."
The loss overshadowed another strong night by senior forward Bryant Dunston, who netted 18 points and added 11 rebounds, both game-highs, while shooting 8-for-11 from the field. The double-double is his sixth straight and Atlantic 10-leading 14th on the season. With his 18 points, Dunston brought his career total to 1,794 points, moving ahead of Joe Paterno (1985-89) and Bevon Robin and into second place on the Fordham all-time list, 92 points behind all-time leading scorer Ed Conlin.
Dayton led the entire game, holding a 30-23 advantage at the break and increasing it to nine, 32-23, on a Jimmy Binnie lay-up 1:32 into the second. The Rams then scored eight straight points on three-pointers from Brenton Butler and Marcus Stout and a Kevin Anderson lay-up, to make it a one-point game, 32-31, with 16:11 remaining.
Charles Little stopped the Fordham run with a dunk two minutes later and a Roberts three-pointer with 11:38 left gave the Flyers a six-point lead, 37-31.
But a Brenton Butler lay-up with 11:25 remaining and a Herb Tanner three-pointer 47 seconds later cut the Fordham deficit back to one, 37-36, with 10:38 left.
Baskets by Binnie and Little boosted the Flyers' lead to five, 41-36, before a Dunston dunk made it a three-point contest, 41-38, with 6:42 left.
A Stout three-pointer a minute later again made it a three-point game, 44-41, and the Rams would trail by four three times over the next four minutes, the final time at 49-45 following a Kevin Anderson lay-up with 1:43 left but that was as close as they would get.
The game started slowly, with Dayton eventually building a seven-point lead, 12-5 over the first 6:13 before Dunston scored four straight for Fordham to make it a 12-9 game, with 11:00 left in the half.
Later in the half, the Flyers would use an 8-2 run to turn a 17-13 lead into a 25-15 advantage on a Roberts jumper with 4:28 left before settling on the seven-point halftime lead, 30-23.
Butler also scored in double figures for the Rams, netting 11 points while Stout finished with nine points and four assists.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, March 5th, as they travel to Richmond, Virginia, to face the University of Richmond in the Robins Center at 7:00 p.m.
Notes
Dayton has now won eight of the past nine meetings and lead the all-time series, 18-5...Dunston's 14 double-doubles are the most for a Ram since Sanford Jenkins recorded eleven in the 1991-92 season...He has recorded double figures in rebounds in 14 of the past 16 games...Dunston now has 39 double-doubles over his career... His 11 rebounds brings his career rebounding total to 970, good for third place on the all-time rebounding list...Dunston's also recorded three blocked shots in the game to bring his Fordham career-record total to 288...Dunston is averaging 18.7 ppg and 11.6 rpg over the past seven games...Stout's nine points brings his career total to 1,667 good for seventh place on the all-time list.
