Box Score Jan. 15, 2009
Final Stats
Dayton, Ohio -
The University of Dayton Arena is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, places to win on the road in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers entered Wednesday night's game with Fordham riding a 12-game home winning streak, tied for 14th best in the NCAA Division I. To make things more difficult for the Rams, Dayton also entered the game with the seventh-ranked scoring defense in the country. But Fordham gave the Flyers everything they could handle, taking a one-point lead with ten seconds remaining before Rob Lowery hit a layup with five seconds left to lead Dayton to a 72-71 Atlantic 10 win.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 2-13 overall, 0-3 in the Atlantic 10, while Dayton improves to 15-2 overall, 1-1 in the conference.
Fordham used the long ball to battle the Flyers, shooting 44.0% (11-25) from behind the arc against a team which entered the game ranked second in three-point field goal defense (30.3%) in the conference. Alberto Estwick, Trey Blue and Mike Moore led the long range onslaught with each hitting three three-pointers.
The Rams trailed by six, 69-63, with 30 seconds left following a pair of Marcus Johnson free throws but, six seconds later, Jio Fontan was fouled shooting a three-pointer and the freshman guard knocked down all three of his charity shots to pull Fordham to within three, 69-66.
After Stephen Thomas hit one of two free throws for Dayton, Fontan got off an off-balanced three-pointer that found nothing but net, making it a one-point game, 70-69, with 14 seconds remaining.
Thomas turned over the ensuing inbounds pass and the loose ball was picked up by Blue, who was fouled driving to the hoop with tens seconds left. Blue connected on the first of his two free throws to knot the game at 70 and then, following a Dayton timeout, calmly sank the second, putting the Rams up 71-70.
With both teams out of timeouts, Lowery took the inbounds pass in the backcourt and drove straight to the rim, laying the ball in with five seconds on the clock.
The Rams quickly got the ball back in play but Dayton swatted the ball away from Fontan as he crossed midcourt and time expired.
Fordham played a solid first half, jumping out to a five-point lead, 13-8, seven minutes into the game with the Rams' first eleven points coming from Estwick.
Five straight Flyer points tied the game at 13 with 10:31 left in the half and the game would be knotted at 15 just over a minute later when Fordham used a Jacob Green layup and Moore three-pointer to build a 20-15 lead 8:25 before intermission.
The Rams would again lead by five, 27-22, three minutes later when the Flyers netted five straight points to tie the contest at 27 with just over four minutes remaining.
The game would be tied twice more over the final four minutes of the half, the last time coming at 33 on the first of two Marcus Johnson free throws with 1:24 left. The second Johnson free throw and a Mickey Perry layup helped Dayton take a 36-33 lead into the break.
A pair of Chris Wright free throws 2:30 into the second half ignited a 15-3 Dayton run as the Flyers turned a 39-38 deficit into a 53-42 lead, their largest lead of the night, with 12:50 left.
A pair of Chris Bethel layups and a Fontan free throw over the next 1:16 cut the Fordham deficit back to six, 53-47, before a Charles Little basket bumped the Dayton lead back to eight, 55-47, with 11:25 remaining.
The Rams then got hot from behind the arc as Blue, Moore and Estwick nailed consecutive three-pointers over the next three minutes, giving Fordham a 56-55 lead following Estwick's trifecta with 8:04 left.
Fordham led by one later in the half when a Marcus Johnson layup and Lowery three-pointer gave the Flyers a 65-61 lead with 3:16 remaining. A Fontan layup with 2:31 left made it a two-point game, 65-63, before a pair from both Wright and Marcus Johnson gave the Flyers the 69-63 lead with 30 seconds left.
Estwick led all scorers with 17 points, hitting six of his ten field goal attempts, including 3-for-6 from behind the arc, while Fontan finished with 15 points and a game-high eight assists. Moore and Blue also scored in double figures for the Rams with each netting eleven points.
The Rams will next be in action on Sunday, January 18th, as they travel to Kingston, Rhode Island, to face the University of Rhode Island in an Atlantic 10 match at 2:00 p.m.
Notes
Dayton entered the game allowing 56.4 ppg while holding opponents to shooting just 36.1% from the field, both league-lows...The 71 points is the third most allowed by Dayton this year...The game featured the top two teams in the Atlantic 10 in turnover margin as the Rams entered as the top team in the league, with a +3.43 average while Dayton was right behind with a +3.00 average...The Rams have dropped the last three meetings with Dayton and are 1-11 all-time in Dayton...Fontan's eight assists give him a team-high 77 on the year, 23 over the past three games...Fontan has now scored in double figures in the past four games, and eight of the last nine, averaging 16.8 ppg over the last four games...Estwick led the Rams in scoring for the past two games...Brenton Butler missed his eighth straight game with an ankle injury.
