Box Score Dec. 8, 2009
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 
| Highlights vs. Stony Brook 
Bronx, N.Y. -
When Fordham head coach Jared Grasso took over the Rams last Thursday, he stated that one of his goals was to have the team play a run-and-gun system, similar to the style Grasso played in college at Quinnipiac. Well it took only two games for Grasso's to attain his goal as the Rams exploded for a season-high 93 points, defeating Stony Brook, 93-77, in the Rose Hill Gym to hand Grasso, the youngest NCAA Division I head coach, his first win as a head coach.
With the win, the Rams snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 2-5 on the year, while Stony Brook falls to 6-3.
"I believe the players needed to feel good and gain confidence which is exactly what they did tonight," said Grasso. "We want to play a fast, up-tempo game and make three-pointers. I want us to score in the eighties every game."
The 93 points scored by the Rams was the most since Fordham netted 95 at Fairfield on December 14, 2005 and is more than the Rams combined to score in the past two games (a 68-44 loss at Manhattan and a 67-46 home loss to Bowling Green). Fordham shot a season-high 51.7% (31-60) from the field, including 13-25 (52.0%) from behind the arc. The 13 made three-pointers is the most for a Fordham team since the Rams hit 13 against La Salle on March 1, 2006.
A part of tonight's success can be directly related to senior Brenton Butler breaking an astonishing shooting slump. He entered the game missing his past 26 shots, dating back to the end of the Hartford game on November 21st where he missed his final field goal attempt. He then went without a basket in the next two games, missing 12 shots at Manhattan and then 13 against Bowling Green on Saturday night. Butler didn't start out hot tonight, missing his first four shots to bring the streak to 30 consecutive misses. But with 13:56 left in the first half he broke the streak with a three-pointer and then went on to hit seven of his next ten shots, including five three-pointer, to finish with a game-high 25 points.
"It was more of a mental thing rather than a physical problem," said Butler. "I stayed confident during the drought but really didn't do anything different. I knew that if I remained confident that the shots would eventually fall."
Butler had help on the offensive end from freshman Chris Gaston, who also scored 25 points. Gaston chipped in on the defensive end too, grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds and blocking two shots. The double-double is the fifth straight for Gaston and the sixth in the first seven games of the year.
When the game started it looked like both teams would struggle to score as the first points of the game weren't put on the board until almost three minutes into the game when Stony Brook's Muhammad hit a pair of free throws.
The game would be tied three times over the next two minutes before the Seawolves took a 12-11 lead on a Bryan Dougher three-pointer with 14:24 left in the half.
Butler responded with a three-pointer for the Rams 28 seconds later that ignited a 9-0 Fordham run as the Rams took an 18-11 lead on a Gaston jumper with 12:45 remaining in the first.
Stony Brook quickly got the deficit back to three, 18-15, on a basket and two free throws from El-Amin over the next 1:30, before the Rams used a 9-2 spurt to take their biggest lead of the half, 27-17, following a Butler three-pointer with 8:37 left in the period.
The Seawolves again whittled the Fordham lead down, eventually getting it to four, 32-28, on a Danny Carter three-pointer with 5:23 remaining in the half. But a 9-4 Ram run got the Fordham advantage back to nine, 41-32, with two minutes left and the Rams would take a 44-28 lead at the break.
The Rams opened the second half increasing the lead to ten, 50-40, on a Gaston layup and Fordham would lead by as many as 15, 69-54, following a Lance Brown three-pointer with just over eight minutes left in the game. The Rams would lead by double digits the rest of the way.
Alberto Estwick and Brown also finished in double figures for the Rams with Estwick netting 16 points and Brown 15, both season-highs. Brown added a season-best six rebounds while Estwick hit four of his seven three-point attempts.
The Rams will next be in action on Sunday, December 13th, as they travel into Queens to face the St. John's University Red Storm in Carnesecca Arena at 4:00 p.m.
Notes
The game was the first meeting between Fordham and Stony Brook on the hardwood...The Rams are now 12-7 all-time against current members of the America East, including a 76-73 season-opening loss to Maine and a 70-62 loss at Hartford on November 21st...Brown's previous season-high was 13 points and five rebounds in the Bowling Green game last Saturday...The Rams outrebounded the Seawolves, 42-34, the third time Fordham has outrebounded an opponent this year (the Rams are 2-1 in those games)...The Rams blocked a season-high eight shots, led by three from Jacob Green.
