Box Score Jan. 14, 2010
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New York, N.Y. -
For the third straight game, the Fordham University men's basketball squad played hard for a portion of the game, taking a lead on Dayton early in the second half, but for the third straight game the Rams weren't able to maintain the momentum, falling to the Flyers, 74-58, in an Atlantic 10 game played at Madison Square Garden.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 2-13 overall, 0-3 in the Atlantic 10, while Dayton improves to 13-3 overall, 2-0 in the conference.
"I thought the kids played hard again but Dayton was able to constantly bring in fresh players from the bench," said Fordham head coach Jared Grasso. "I'm proud of our effort but we have to be 40 minutes good, not 25 or 30."
The Flyers took advantage of a deeper bench with ten players notching double figure minutes totals, compared to seven for Fordham.
The Rams trailed by five at the half, 31-26, and Dayton increased the lead to seven 43 seconds into the second half before the Rams used a 10-2 spurt to take a 36-35 lead on an Alberto Estwick three-pointer with 17:48 left. Estwick started the run with a jumper and 30 seconds later a Lance Brown basket cut the Fordham deficit to three, 33-30. After Marcus Johnson bumped the Flyer lead to five, 35-30, with 18:13 remaining a Brenton Butler three-pointer 25 seconds later pulled the Rams to within two, 35-33.
After Estwick gave Fordham its only lead of the night, Paul Williams knocked down a three-pointer for Dayton with 16:01 left to put the Flyers up two, 38-36. But Fahro Alihodzic answered with an offensive rebound and basket for Fordham to tie the game at 38 with 15:29 remaining.
The Fordham offense then went cold as the Flyers outscored the Rams 14-1 over the next three minutes to take a 13-point lead, 52-39, following a Luke Fabrizius three-pointer.
A Butler jumper interrupted the Dayton run and made it an 11-point game, 52-41, and the Rams cut the Dayton lead to ten, 56-46, later in the half when Butler nailed a three-pointer with 10:33 left. But that was as close as Fordham would get as the Flyers used a 13-2 spurt to take their biggest lead of the night, 69-48, with 4:33 left. The closest the Rams would get from that point would be 14, 71-57, on a Chris Gaston free throw with 2:25 remaining.
Dayton opened up a 9-2 lead over the first 3:14 of the game before the Rams battled back, cutting the Flyer advantage to four, 11-7, on a Butler three-pointer two minutes later. But Dayton stretched its lead to nine, 16-7, with five straight points before the Rams again fought back, using an 8-2 spurt to make it a three-point game, 18-15, following an Estwick trifecta midway through the half.
Later in the period, Dayton took a 24-16 lead on a Devin Searcy layup when Fordham responded with eight straight points, four from Gaston, to knot the game at 24 on a Butler jumper.
But Dayton closed out the half with a 7-2 run to take the 31-26 halftime lead.
Butler led all scorers with 20 points, the fourth time in the past five games that he has scored at least 20 points, while Gaston and Estwick each added ten. Gaston also grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocks.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, January 16th, as they host the other Atlantic 10 Rams, the University of Rhode Island, in the Rose Hill Gym at 2:00 p.m.
Notes
Gaston scored all ten of his points from the free throw stripe...The ten free throws made and the 14 charity shots attempted were both season-highs for Gaston...Butler is now 12-23 (52.2%) from three-point range over the past three games and is averaging 19.1 ppg over the past nine games...Freshman guard Rayner Moquete scored his first collegiate basket in the first half and then nailed a three-pointer and a pair of free throws to finish with seven points and three rebounds...The game was the first for Rams in their white uniforms since the Villanova game at the IZOD Center on December 19th...The game was Fordham's first at Madison Square Garden since 2002...The Rams are now 43-71 all-time at The Garden...Dayton now leads the all-time series, 20-5, and have won the past four meetings.
