Box Score Jan. 9, 2010
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa. -
For the second straight game the Fordham men's basketball squad gave an opponent all it could handle, hitting more field goals and outrebounding Saint Joseph's by a wide margin. But for the second consecutive game, the Rams came up short, falling to the Hawks, 82-69, in an Atlantic 10 match-up at the Hagan Arena.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 2-12 overall on the year, 0-2 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Joseph's goes to 5-9 overall, 1-1 in the conference.
The two big issues for the Rams today were turnovers and free throws, too many of the former and too few of the latter. Fordham turned the ball over 20 times which led to 23 Saint Joseph's points while the Hawks outscored the Rams 24-3 from the charity stripe, 18-0 in the second half when Fordham did not attempt a free throw.
The loss overshadowed the performance of freshman Fahro Alihodzic, who scored a season-high 16 points, shooting 8-for-13 from the field, and added eight rebounds.
The Rams started out slowly, trailing 6-2 over the first two minutes and then 19-14 with 11:39 left in the half. A Lance Brown jumper 19 seconds later pulled the Rams to within three, 19-16, before Saint Joseph's used a 9-2 spurt to take its biggest lead of the half, 28-18, with 9:18 left on a Garrett Williamson dunk.
Just under a minute later, Brenton Butler hit a jumper that ignited a 12-2 Fordham run as the Rams tied the game at 30 on an Alihodzic layup with just over four minutes remaining in the half.
A Bryant Irwin layup and a Williamson three-pointer sandwiched around an Alihodzic layup gave the Hawks a 35-32 lead with 3:15 left but the Rams would come back to take a 37-35 lead on a Khiry Gordon tip-in with 2:20 remaining.
A pair of Carl Jones free throws 30 seconds later knotted the game at 37 for Saint Joseph's before the Ram scored the final six points of the half, on two Gaston jumpers and a Brown tip-in, to take a 43-37 lead at the break.
Saint Joseph's opened the second half with an 8-2 run to tie the game at 45 3:30 into the period, the seventh tie of the contest to that point. A Brown three-pointer gave Fordham a 48-45 lead with 16:14 left before the Hawks scored six straight to take a 51-48 lead following a Darrin Glovins layup with 14:52 remaining.
Fordham would again battle back, eventually tying the game at 53 on a Herb Tanner three-pointer with 12:18 left and the game would be tied three more times over the next four minutes, the final time at 60 on an Alberto Estwick layup with 8:05 remaining.
The Hawks took two three-point leads over the next 1:10 before a Brown jumper and a Gordon dunk gave Fordham its final lead of the day, 66-65, with 5:58 remaining. Saint Joseph's then netted nine straight points to take a 74-66 lead with just over two minutes remaining and the Hawks would hit all eight of their free throws over the final 1:50 to hold on for the win.
Butler finished with 13 points for the Rams while Brown added 11 points and six rebounds and Gaston, who fouled out with 3:04 left, scored nine points and grabbed ten rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday night, January 13th, as they host the University of Dayton Flyers in an Atlantic 10 game at Madison Square Garden at 9:00 PM. The contest will be preceded by a St. John's-Cincinnati matchup at 7:00 PM.
Notes
The game was the fifth of five straight road games for Fordham...Alihodzic's previous season-high was 12, which he accomplished at Fairfield on Nov. 15th...His eight field goals and 13 field goal attempts were also season-bests...The Rams outrebounded Saint Joseph's, 46-30, and have grabbed 95 rebounds in the past two games...Saint Joe's 30 rebounds is the low for a Fordham opponent in a game this year...The three made free throws ties the Fordham low in a game this season (the Rams also had only three free throws at Massachusetts on Wednesday) while the seven attempts are a season-low...Saint Joseph's now leads the all-time series, 26-16, and have won four straight over the Rams...The Rams are now winless in the last 13 games at Saint Joseph's....The last Fordham win over the Hawks in Philadelphia was in 1990.
