Box Score Dec. 23, 2009
Final Stats
Harrisonburg, Va. -
With a young team facing its first of five straight road games, it was important for the Fordham University men's basketball squad to get off to a fast start at James Madison on Wednesday. And a the youthful Rams responded, taking a 41-32 halftime lead on the Dukes as Fordham played one of its best 20-minute stretches of the year. Unfortunately, the Rams couldn't maintain the first half momentum, falling to James Madison, 85-73, at the JMU Convocation Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 2-8 while James Madison improves to 6-4.
"They came out strong in the second and took the lead," said Fordham head coach Jared Grasso. "We came back to regain the lead but in the end we missed too many layups and couldn't keep them off the offensive boards."
Fordham took the halftime lead thanks to a hot hand and strong defense. The Rams shot 51.4% (18-35) in the half and held James Madison to shooting just 38.7% (12-31) in the period. Fordham also outrebounded the Dukes in the half, 23-18, and was able to force the tempo, outscoring the home team 11-4 in fast break points.
The second half was almost a total reverse of the first as James Madison shot over 53% in the period while the Rams hit 12 of their 39 shots (30.8%). The imbalance was even more pronounced at the free throw stripe as the Dukes made 19 charity shots in the half (23 in the game) while Fordham shot just eight in the period, making all eight.
The Rams opened the game hot, scoring the first six points on baskets from Lance Brown, Jacob Green and Chris Gaston to take a 6-0 lead 1:26 into the game.
James Madison used a 6-2 spurt to cut the Fordham advantage to two, 8-6, just over two minutes later before the Rams pumped in six straight points to take a 14-6 lead following a Green jumper with 11:48 left in the half.
Fordham maintained the eight-point lead until James Madison used a jumper and a three-pointer to turn a 26-18 Fordham lead into a 26-23 advantage with 6:41 remaining. A minute later, the Rams led by four, 28-24, when Fordham scored eight unanswered points to take a 36-24 lead with just under three minutes left in the period. Gaston started the run with a free throw and Estwick followed with a lay up. A Gaston jumper followed by a Estwick three-pointer bumped the lead to 12.
A Denzel Bowles free throw interrupted the Fordham run but a Fahro Alihodzic jumper with 2:25 left in the half increased the lead to 13, 38-25, the biggest lead of the night for the Rams.
The Dukes came out determined in the second half, hitting six of their first nine shots while holding the Rams scoreless to take a 44-41 lead on a Bowles jumper 3:39 into the period. A Brenton Butler jumper 20 seconds later got the Rams back to within one but Bowles answered with a jumper with 15:46 left to bump the James Madison lead back to three, 46-43.
A 7-1 Fordham spurt helped the Rams take a 50-47 lead following a Gaston three-point play with just over 13 minutes remaining.
A Julius Wells three-pointer knotted the game at 50 for the Dukes, the first of five ties over the next six minutes, the final tie coming at 67 with 6:02 left. James Madison would score the next six points to go up 73-67 with 4:13 remaining and the closest the Rams would get from that point would be four, 73-69, after a pair of Butler free throws with 3:33 remaining.
Gaston led the Rams with 24 points and he grabbed eight rebounds while Butler finished with 16 points and six assists. Alihodzic added a season-high ten rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Tuesday, December 29th as they travel to Kennesaw, Georgia, to face the Kennesaw State University Owls at 7:30 p.m.
Notes
Gaston has now scored in double figures in eight straight games and in nine of the ten games this year...Alihodzic's previous season-high in rebounding was six, which he did twice, the last time against Stony Brook...The game was the first of five straight road games for Fordham and the third of eight straight games away from the Rose Hill Gym (the Rams played a home game against Villanova at the IZOD Center on December 19th and will host Dayton at Madison Square Garden on January 13th)...Fordham shot 81.8% (9-11) from the free throw stripe and have now connected on 23 of their 26 free throws over the past two games...Brown and Green both fouled out the game...The Rams have now dropped both of their games with James Madison...Fordham is now 20-16 all-time against schools currently in the Colonial Athletic Association and 4-8 all-time when playing in the state of Virginia.
