Box Score
Final Stats
Nov. 21, 2009
West Hartford, Conn. - Hoping to build off their first win of the season last Wednesday, the Fordham men's basketball team ventured up to Hartford on Saturday but, despite a game-high 24 points from Brenton Butler, the Rams couldn't build on the momentum, falling to the Hawks, 70-62, in the Chase Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion.
With the loss, the Rams fall to 1-3 on the year while Hartford evens its record at 2-2.
Fordham trailed for most of the game but used a 7-1 run to cut a nine-point deficit, 59-50, to three, 60-57, with 57 seconds left. Butler led the run with four points, capping it with a jumper.
Andres Torres hit a pair of free throws for Hartford five seconds later to bump the Hawks' lead back to five before a Chris Gaston layup made it a three-point game again, 62-59, with 44 seconds remaining.
A Morgan Sabia layup and a pair of Joe Zeglinski free throws increased the Hartford lead back to seven, 66-59, over the next 21 seconds before Butler answered with a three-pointer for the Rams to make it a 66-62 game with 19 ticks left on the clock. But Hartford hit all four of its free throws over the final 14 seconds to secure the win.
The score was tied at five 2:30 into the game when Hartford scored nine straight points to take a 14-5 lead with 11:43 left in the half. Layups from Khiry Gordon and Jacob Green over the next 39 seconds brought the Rams to within five, 14-9. But the Hawks then used an 8-1 spurt to take their largest lead of the game, 22-10, following a Sabia dunk with 6:55 remaining in the first.
Fordham responded with a 14-6 run, led by eleven point from Butler who hit three three-pointers in the spurt, to cut the deficit back to four, 28-24, with 1:31 left but Hartford scored the last four points of the period to take a 32-24 lead at the intermission.
Hartford built the lead up to ten three times in the second half, the last at 56-46 with 6:59 left on a Torres free throw.
Butler connected on six of his nine three-point shots to amass his 24 points while Chris Gaston notched his second straight double-double with 17 points and ten rebounds and Jio Fontan chipped in with 11 points.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, November 28th, as they venture across the Bronx to face Manhattan College in the annual Battle of the Bronx at 7:00 PM.
