Box Score Nov. 29, 2011
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Media Coverage: Young Fordham basketball has a lot to learn, but Pecora's team gets a win to grow on (N.Y. Daily News) | Fordham's Gaston Reaches 1,000 (N.Y. Post)
Bronx, N.Y. -
For the first 33 minutes of tonight's game, the Fordham offense was struggling. Then the Rams realized that the best way to jump start the offense was with defense, recording seven of their 15 steals over the final seven minutes, as Fordham pulled away from Colgate for a 79-69 win in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the win, Fordham evens its record at 2-2 on the year while Colgate drops to 2-4.
"It's a good win because we made mistakes down the stretch, we'll learn from those mistakes and we were able to close a team out," said Fordham head coach Tom Pecora. "I'm proud of Devon and Bryan, they did a good job and made some big time plays. They tease you with flashes of it as freshmen and what separates good freshmen from great ones is that they become consistent quicker."
Early in the game, junior forward Chris Gaston hit a jumper that pushed him over the 1,000 career point plateau as he became the 34th player in Fordham men's basketball history to surpass the 1,000-point career scoring mark, doing so in just his 60th career game. He is the first Ram to score 1,000 career points in 60 games or less since Bevon Robin netted his 1,000th point in his 56th career game in 1999.
Gaston also notched his third straight double-double of the year for the Rams with 15 points and eleven rebounds. He now has 39 career double-doubles in his 60 career games.
Despite the efforts of Gaston, the night belonged to two Fordham freshmen, Devon McMillan and Bryan Smith. McMillan netted a game-high 20 points and recorded five steals while Smith finished with 19 points and a game-best six steals. The two combined to score 26 of the final 36 points of the game for Fordham.
The Rams trailed for the entire first half and for most of the first 13 minutes of the second until a McMillan free throw and two more from Smith cut a 56-52 Colgate lead down to one, 56-55, with 7:44 left.
A Smith steal and layup 15 seconds later gave Fordham a 57-56 lead, but the Raiders knotted the game at 57 on a Nick Pascale free throw with 7:07 remaining.
A McMillan layup 15 seconds later gave the Rams the lead for good, 59-57, and ignited a 12-2 spurt to help the Rams build their biggest lead of the night, 69-59, on a Gaston jumper with 3:10 left.
The closest Colgate would get from there was five, 74-69, after a Mitch Rolls three-pointer with 34 ticks left on the clock. But the Rams hit five of their six free throws over the final 20 seconds to secure the win.
The Fordham offense started slowly, scoring just four points in the first 5:20 as the Rams found themselves down, 12-4. But jumpers from McMillan, Marvin Dominique and Gaston cut the Fordham deficit down to two, 12-10, with 11:42 left in the period.
The Rams would get the Colgate advantage down to one, 13-12, on another Dominique jumper but the Raiders nailed three three-pointers and the Rams could only respond with a trey from
Branden Frazier as Colgate built the lead to seven, 22-15, with 8:11 remaining.
Colgate again led by seven, 29-22, with 5:40 left when the Rams closed out the half with a 10-4 run to make it a one-point game at the break, 33-32.
A Gaston layup 1:03 into the second gave Fordham its first lead of the game, 34-33, and the game would be tied at 38 two minutes later before Colgate used a 12-5 run to a seven-point lead, 50-43, with 13:44 remaining.
The Rams eventually whittled the Raiders lead down to one, 53-52, on a McMillan jumper midway through the second when Fordham exploded for a 17-3 run to take the ten-point lead, 69-59.
Frazier finished with eight points and two steals for the Rams while Dominique chipped in with seven points and Kervin Bristol had eight rebounds and three blocks.
The Rams will next be in action on Thursday night, December 1st, as they host the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks in the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 p.m.
Notes
The game was the first meeting between the two schools since March 5, 1995 when they met at the Patriot League Championship tournament... The game marked Fordham's last game as a member of the Patriot League... The Rams now lead the all-time series, 19-10... Gaston's 15 points bring is career total to 1,012, good for 34th on the Rams' all-time scoring list, seven points behind Bill Carlson (1949-52)... Gaston's eleven rebounds bring his career rebounding total to 672, good for 13th on the Fordham all-time list, eight behind Danny O'Sullivan (1986-90) for 12th place... The Rams recorded 15 steals in the game, the third time in the four games this year that the Rams registered double digits in steals... Fordham entered the game second in the Atlantic 10 and tied for 20th in the NCAA in steals per game... Fordham also forced 20 Colgate turnovers, the second 20-plus turnover game by a Fordham opponent this year... The Rams converted the 20 turnovers into 32 points while also outscoring the Raiders, 30-12, in the paint... The two teams combined for 53 fouls in the game with six players fouling out (four Raiders and two Rams)... As a result of all the fouls, Fordham shot 40 free throws while Colgate took 24 charity shots... CBS college basketball announcer Bill Rafferty and ABC/ESPN play-by-play man Mike Breen, FCRH '83, were in attendance.
