Box Score Dec. 1, 2010
Final Stats
Cambridge, Mass. -
On February 7, 1945, Fordham played in the first collegiate game with a three-point shot, hitting nine of the shots to Columbia's eleven. Tonight it appeared that Harvard has been shooting the long range shots for the past 65 years, hitting 15 of its 27 three-point attempts, as the Crimson defeated the Rams, 80-57, in the Lavietes Pavilion.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 2-4 on the year while Harvard improves to 5-1.
The game started out well for Fordham who led 10-6 four minutes into the contest following an Alberto Estwick three-pointer. Chris Gaston led the opening run for the Rams with five points.
The Crimson answered Fordham's opening run with eight straight points to take a 14-10 lead on a Kyle Casey dunk with 14:30 left in the first.
Brenton Butler responded for the Rams with a jumper and a three-pointer over the next 1:35 to put Fordham up one, 15-14, the Rams' last lead of the night.
A Casey three-pointer with 11:52 remaining in the half ignited an 18-3 Harvard run as the Crimson built a 32-18 advantage with 6:53 to go in the period.
A Branden Frazier three 18 seconds later pulled the Rams to within eleven, 32-21, but five straight Crimson points helped Harvard take its largest lead of the half, 37-21, with 4:51 left and the home team would take a 42-29 advantage into the intermission.
The Rams came out determined in the second half, opening the period with a 9-4 spurt to trim the deficit back to eight, 46-38, when Gaston, who netted seven of the nine Fordham points, dunked an alley-oop inbound pass from Butler three minutes into the half.
A Laurent Rivard three and a Christian Webster jumper over the next two minutes put the Crimson up 51-38 before Kervin Bristol answered with a layup for Fordham to make it an eleven-point game, 51-40, with 14:35 remaining.
Harvard then started connecting from behind the arc, hitting five straight three-pointers to take a commanding 66-42 lead midway through the half and the closest the Rams would get from that point was the final 23-point deficit, 80-57.
Gaston finished with 14 points and ten rebounds for the Rams, his fifth double-double of the year, while Butler added eleven points, five assists and four rebounds and Marvin Dominique netted nine points and grabbed three rebounds.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday night, December 4th, as they travel to Bethlehem, Penn., to take on the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks at 7:30 p.m.
Notes
The loss snaps a two-game Fordham winning streak in the all-time series... Fordham still leads the series, 7-3... The game was the first played between the two teams since 1986... All ten meetings between the two schools have been in the month of December... Gaston now has 24 career double-doubles... Butler's nine points bring his career total to 1,197, 18th on the Fordham all-time scoring list, 23 behind Jason Harris for 17th... The game marked the first time this year that the Rams have been outrebounded as Harvard recorded 34 boards to 31 for Fordham... The Crimson shot better from behind the arc (15-27 (55.6%)) than from inside (13-30 (43.3%))... Former Ram John Pugh, who just finished graduate school at MIT, was in attendance.
