Box Score Feb. 25, 2009
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Bronx, N.Y.-- If anyone had any question as to whether the current losing streak was affecting Fordham University men's basketball attitude they only had to witness freshman guard Jio Fontan vault over the scorer's table, taking down a security guard who was sitting at the end of the table, while going after a loose ball in the second half of their game on Wednesday with Richmond.
Unfortunately for Fordham fans, Fontan's emotional play couldn't overcome the fact that three Rams fouled out of the game as Fordham fell to Richmond, 78-68, in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 3-22 on the year, 1-12 in the Atlantic 10, while Richmond improves to 15-13 overall, 7-6 in the conference.
Fordham shot a season-high 52.2% (24-46) from the field and 80.0% (16-20) from the charity stripe but the Rams finished the game with only four scholarship players available after three fouled out.
"For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to play," said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. "I was pleased with some aspects of our game tonight. We shot the ball better but we still missed some crucial shots that could have gotten us over the hump and we didn't box out very well."
Mike Moore and Jio Fontan led the Rams with Moore netting a game-high 25 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field before fouling out with just under six minutes remaining, while Fontan added 18, shooting 7-for-15 from the field.
The Spiders opened the game with a 9-3 lead four minutes into the contest but a pair of Fontan layups over the next 1:43 cut the Fordham deficit to two, 9-7, and the Rams would eventually pull to within one, 12-11, on a Fontan three-pointer with 12:54 left in the half.
Richmond responded with a 12-4 spurt, to take a nine-point lead, 24-15, on a Josh Duinker layup midway through the half but the Rams came back with a 6-2 run, led by four Moore free throws, to trim the Richmond lead back to five, 26-21, with 8:21 left.
The Rams would trail by five twice again over the next three minutes, the final time at 30-25 following a Herb Tanner layup. But Richmond would go on a 12-2 run to take a 15-point lead, 42-27, with just over a minute left in the half, and the Spiders would take a 42-31 advantage into the break.
Richmond scored the first five points of the second half to take its biggest lead of the night, 47-31, on a David Gonzalvez layup 1:26 into the second half.
The Spiders would lead by 16 again later in the period, 51-35, with 17:25 left when Fordham scored six straight points, three from Zach Wing, to cut the Spiders' lead to nine, 51-42, on a Moore layup with 14:36 remaining.
But nine points was as close as the Rams would get, doing so five times over the next nine minutes, the final time at 72-63 following a Fontan three-point play with 5:04 left.
The Rams had a chance to cut the lead down to six, but an Alberto Estwick three-pointer bounced out with just over four minutes left and Gonzalvez gave the Spiders a double digit lead on a layup with 3:49 left.
Wing pulled down a career-high seven rebounds for the Rams.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, February 28th, as they travel to Charlotte, N.C., to face the Charlotte 49ers in an Atlantic 10 game at 2:00p.m.
Notes
The win is the second straight in the all-time series for the Spiders who have evened the all-time series with Fordham at seven games each...The Fordham men's and women's swimming and diving teams and indoor track and field teams were honored at halftime for their exploits at their respective conference tournaments last weekend...The game's final basket was a Matt Beck three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining, his first collegiate basket...Beck has played 45 minutes over the past two games...Wing's previous career-high for rebounds was five, set against Duquesne on Jan, 25th...Moore has now scored over 20 points in four of the past five games, averaging 21.2 ppg over that span...Fontan has scored in double figures in the past 14 games and 18 of the last 19...He is averaging 17.3 ppg over the past 14 games...Former New York Knick Stephon Marbury, who was recruited to play at Georgia Tech by Whittenburg, attended the pregame shoot around.
