Box Score Feb. 18, 2009
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa.-- The Fordham men's basketball Rams were trying to play the role of the Grinch at Temple University Wednesday night. They were trying to prevent Christmas from happening. In this case, it was Temple's Dionte Christmas, who entered the game leading the Atlantic 10 in scoring with a 19.8 ppg average.
The Rams did their best, holding Christmas to 14 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the field, but Fordham couldn't find its offense as the Rams fell to the Owls, 72-45, in an Atlantic 10 game played in the Liacouras Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 3-20 overall, 1-10 in the Atlantic 10, while Temple improves to 16-9 overall, 8-3 in the conference.
Jio Fontan, who played through an injury suffered at Xavier on Saturday, played one of his best all-around games for Fordham, leading the Rams with 14 points while also dishing out seven assists, grabbing six rebounds and recording four steals.
"I think we did a good job on Christmas as we didn't want him to get going for them," said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "It came down to us making our shots and they weren't falling tonight. But I'm proud of the way my guys hung in there and played hard until the end."
The Rams took a quick 3-0 lead on a Fontan three-pointer 30 seconds into the game but the Owls responded with 12 straight points to take a 12-3 lead on a Sergio Olmos layup with 15:35 left in the half.
A Mike Moore three-pointer snapped the Temple scoring run 33 seconds later and a Fontan layup with just under 13 minutes remaining cut the Fordham deficit back to four, 12-8.
Craig Williams put the Owls up seven, 15-8, with a three-pointer with 11:18 left and, following a Moore layup, Ryan Brooks stretched the lead to eight, 18-10, with a trifecta with 9:40 remaining.
The Fordham defense then clamped down, allowing the Rams to score eight straight points, capped by a Zach Wing fast break layup off a perfect feed from Fontan, to tie the game at 18 with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.
The Owls responded to the Fordham run by closing out the half with a 15-4 run to take a 33-22 lead at the break.
Fordham managed to cut the Temple lead back to eight, 33-25, on an Alberto Estwick layup and a Jacob Green free throw over the first minute of the second half but a pair of Owl three-pointers over the next 2:40 gave Temple a 39-25 lead.
A Fontan jumper with just under 16 minutes left pulled the Rams to within 12, 39-27, and Fordham would trail by 13, 42-29, following a Green layup 1:30 later when Temple would use a 19-4 run to build a commanding 28-point lead, 61-33, with 6:27 remaining.
Green added 13 points and four rebounds for the Rams while Moore finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
Fordham will next be in action on Saturday afternoon, February 21st, as the Rams host the University of Rhode Island in an Atlantic 10 contest in the Rose Hill Gym at 1:00 p.m.
Notes
Temple now leads the all-time series, 35-13, but the Rams have won four of the past six meetings...Fontan has scored in double figures in the past 12 games and 16 of the past 17...He is averaging 17.0 ppg over the past 12 games...His six rebounds ties his career-high, set against James Madison... Matt Beck saw action in the first half when Herb Tanner got into foul trouble and had the assignment of defending Christmas...Estwick, who was 1-for-23 in three-point attempts entering the game, hit two of his five long-range shots... Ryan Hage saw his first action since suffering an injury in the Princeton game on November 26th.
