Box Score Dec. 7, 2011
Final Stats
Bronx, N.Y. -
Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. The Fordham men's basketball squad discovered that tonight in the Draddy Gym where Manhattan College used a stifling defense to force a season-high 20 Ram turnovers as the Jaspers took the 104th edition of the "Battle of the Bronx" with an 81-47 win over Fordham.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 3-4 on the year while Manhattan improves to 5-4.
"This loss is on me," said Fordham head coach Tom Pecora. "I didn't have our guys prepared to match Manhattan's intensity. We didn't do anything well tonight. They sped the game up and forced turnovers which they converted into points and we could never get going."
The Rams started slowly, trailing 8-0 2:24 into the game before using an 8-2 spurt to pull to within two, 10-8, on a Devon McMillan jumper with 15:16 left in the half.
The Jaspers quickly got the lead back to seven, 15-8, with five straight points, and would eventually get the lead to ten, 20-10, with 11:51 remaining in the period when Fordham ran off seven consecutive points of its own to make it a three-point game, 20-17, following a Branden Frazier layup with 7:30 left on the clock. Frazier netted four of the eight Fordham points in the run.
On Manhattan's ensuing possession, the Jaspers grabbed two offensive rebounds before sinking a layup that ignited an 11-2 run for Manhattan as the Jaspers took their biggest lead of the half, 31-19, with 2:43 left in the half.
The Rams whittled the Manhattan advantage down to six, 31-25, after a Bryan Smith three-pointer with 1:30 remaining but the Jaspers scored the final five points of the half to take a 36-25 advantage into the locker room.
The second half was all Manhattan as the Jaspers opened the period outscoring the Rams 19-7 to take a commanding 55-32 lead with 13:56 left.
McMillan finished with a team-high 12 points for Fordham and he also grabbed five rebounds while Frazier added nine points and three assists and Gaston contributed eight points and five rebounds.
The Rams will return to action on Saturday, December 10th, as they travel to West Long Branch, N.J., to face Monmouth University at 7:00 p.m. for the second of four straight road games.
Notes
Manhattan now leads the all-time series, 54-50... This was the 100th anniversary of the first meeting between Fordham and Manhattan, a 20-19 Jasper win in 1911-12... Gaston's eight points bring his career total to 1,044, good for 30th on the Rams' all-time scoring list, eight points behind Sanford Jenkins (1988-92) for 29th place... Gaston's five rebounds bring his career rebounding total to 699, moving him ahead of John Coalmon (1958-61)and into tenth place on the Rams' all-time rebounding list, 44 behind Bill Carlson (1949-52)... Gaston had a streak of five straight double-doubles stopped tonight... Jeff Short, who had only played two minutes prior to tonight due to injuries, played 13 minutes tonight, netting two points... Ryan Canty played a season-high 15 minutes, scoring five points and adding six rebounds, both season-highs... The 81 points scored by Manhattan are the most for any Fordham opponent this year while the 47 points scored by the Rams is a season low.
