Box Score Jan. 15, 2011
Final Stats
Charlotte, N.C. -
The Fordham men's basketball team was seeing green tonight in its game at Charlotte and it wasn't just because green is one of the 49ers' school colors. The Rams were done in by Charlotte junior guard Derrio Green, who scored 19 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to lead Charlotte to a 71-61 Atlantic 10 win over Fordham in the Halton Arena.
With the loss, the fifth straight for the Rams, Fordham falls to 6-9 overall, 0-3 in the Atlantic 10. Charlotte improves to 9-8 overall, 1-2 in the conference.
"I thought we gave a much better effort tonight than our previous couple of games," said Fordham head coach Tom Pecora. "We played with good intensity and it was as physical of a game as we'll probably see all year. But they controlled the backboards tonight and took advantage of their second chances."
The game turned on the three-point shot as the Rams connected on five in the first half but the 49ers outdid them in the second half, hitting seven of their ten shots from behind the arc including one by Green with 4:46 left that broke a 57-57 tie, and 11 of their 22 overall in the game.
After consistently outrebounding its opponents during the nonconference season, Fordham hasn't controlled the boards since the start of the conference slate and that ended up hurting the Rams tonight. Fordham was outrebounded 41-24 in the game and Charlotte scored 23 second chance points off of 16 offensive rebounds.
The game was tied at 57 following a Kervin Bristol layup with 5:25 left, the seventh tie of the game, and Lamount Samuell had a chance to give the Rams the lead 32 seconds later but his layup fell off the rim. The 49ers grabbed the rebound and quickly got the ball to Green who buried a three-pointer to put Charlotte up 60-57 with 4:46 remaining.
A little over a minute later, Chris Braswell hit one of two free throws to make it a 61-57 game. With 2:44 left, Green missed a three and the Rams worked the ball inside but Marvin Dominique couldn't sink a layup and Green made the Rams pay for the miss with another three with 2:29 left to help the 49ers go up 64-57.
A pair of Green free throws made it a nine-point game with 1:41 left on the clock before Samuell halted the 9-0 Charlotte run with a layup 20 seconds later. A Jamar Briscoe free throw was answered by a Dominique tip-in with just over a minute left to pull the Rams to within six, 67-61, but that was as close as Fordham would get as Charlotte hit four free throws over the final 53 seconds.
The Rams opened the game with a 6-0 lead thanks to three-pointers from Brenton Butler and Alberto Estwick over the first 1:10 but the 49ers scored seven straight points to take a 7-6 lead just under four minutes into the contest.
The 49ers led again by one, 11-10, with 14:33 left in the half when the Rams used a 7-1 spurt to take a 17-12 lead following a Branden Frazier three-pointer with just under ten minutes remaining in the period.
The Rams would lead by five twice more over the next three minutes, the final time at 25-20, but Charlotte outscored Fordham 14-6 over the final seven minutes of the half to take a 34-31 lead into the break.
Butler led the Rams with 14 points and he dished out three assists while Samuell finished with eleven points and three rebounds and Chris Gaston netted ten points, all in the second half, and he grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday night, January 19th, as they host the Saint Louis University Billikens in an Atlantic 10 game in the IZOD Center at 7:30 p.m.
Notes
The 49ers won their third straight against Fordham and now lead the all-time series, 7-1... The loss extends Fordham's Atlantic 10 losing streak to 29 games dating back to 2009... The last Fordham conference win was a 67-65 victory over St. Bonaventure on January 28, 2009... The 49ers hit 16 free throws to four for the Rams... Over the past four games the Rams are 11-20 from the charity stripe while their opponents are a combined 44-62... The five attempts tonight is a season-low for the Rams (the previous low was six against Temple)... Fordham's 24 rebounds was also a season-low (the previous low was 27 also in the Temple game)... The Rams forced 17 Charlotte turnovers tonight and only committed ten themselves... Butler's 14 points bring his career total to 1,350, placing him eleventh on the Fordham all-time scoring list... He is 22 points behind Bob Melvin (1968-71) for tenth on the career list... Butler hit two three-pointers to bring his career total to 200, placing him fourth on the Fordham career list, 14 behind Jermaine Anderson (2002-06) and Bevon Robin (1997-2001) for third on the list... Butler's parents and younger brother made the trip up from Atlanta to see the game... Estwick also had his family at the game... Green has had success against the Rams the past two years, scoring 24 against them last year.
