Nov. 7, 2011

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Bronx, N.Y. - The good news for the Fordham men's basketball squad was that Branden Frazier and Chris Gaston combined to score 49 points in tonight's exhibition game with Northwood University in the Rose Hill Gym. The bad news was that the rest of the squad combined for 22 points as the Rams fell to the Seahawks, 76-71.

It's very likely that most of the people in the Rose Hill Gym had never heard of Northwood University prior to tonight but it's pretty certain that they won't forget. The Seahawks, coached by Rollie Massimino who led Villanova to the NCAA title in 1985, advanced to the Final Four of the NAIA Division II championship last year and are the preseason number one team in the nation for the division. It was the Seahawks' second exhibition game of the week as Northwood almost knocked off the University of Maryland in an exhibition game Friday night, falling to the Terps, 89-84.

The game started out on a good note for the Rams, who built a ten-point led, 18-8, 5:27 into the game. Gaston led the opening run for Fordham with 13 of the Rams' 18 points, including a pair of three-pointers.

After a Patrick Horstmann jumper cut the Fordham lead back to eight, Frazier answered with a three-pointer to give the Rams their biggest lead of the night. 21-10, with 11:56 left in the first.

The Fordham offense then went cold as Northwood scored 13 straight points, taking a 23-21 lead on a Oleksandr Doroshkov layup with 9:14 remaining in the half.

A Devon McMillan three-pointer 27 seconds later gave the Rams a 23-21 lead but the Seahawks then went on a 16-4 run to take a ten-point lead, 37-27, with 4:41 left on the clock

Northwood built the lead to 14 at the break, 45-31, and the Seahawks maintained a 14-point lead, 49-35, 2:39 in to the second half when the Rams used a 12-2 spurt to cut the deficit to four, 51-47, on a Frazier three-pointer with 11:53 left. Gaston led the run with five points.

The Rams trailed again by four, 53-49, 49 seconds later when the Seahawks went on a 10-4 run to bump the lead up to ten, 63-53, with 6:57 remaining. Fordham got the Northwood advantage down to five three times over the last minute but that was as close as the Rams would get.

Frazier netted a team-high 26 points, shooting 11-for-15 from the field, while Gaston registered a double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds and Kervin Bristol finished with ten points, seven rebounds and six blocks.

The Rams will open their regular season on Saturday, November 12th, as they travel to Syracuse to face the Orange at 4:00 p.m. in a game that will be televised live on SNY.