Feb. 23, 2011

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St. Bonaventure, N.Y. -

The Fordham University men's basketball team continues its Atlantic 10 season tonight in St. Bonaventure, N.Y., as the Rams take on the St. Bonaventure University Bonnies at 7:00 PM in the Reilly Center. Follow the game live on your computer by clicking on the links above.

The Rams enter the game with a 6-18 overall record, 0-12 in the conference, following a 79-72 Atlantic 10 loss to Xavier University in Cincinnati on Saturday. The Rams are looking to snap a 14-game losing streak as well as a 38-game Atlantic 10 losing streak dating back to 2009 (the last Fordham conference win was at St. Bonaventure in 2009). St. Bonaventure enters the game with a 14-11 overall record, 6-6 in the A-10 after an 82-65 conference loss at Richmond on Sunday.

Fordham will be guided into the game by first-year head coach Tom Pecora, who arrived at Rose Hill in March after nine successful seasons as the head coach at Hofstra where he averaged 20 wins during the past six years.

On the court, Fordham is led by sophomore Chris Gaston and senior Brenton Butler. Gaston has posted a double-double in 15 of the 24 games this year, including an 26-point, 15-rebound game at Xavier, and is averaging 16.1 ppg and 11.1 rpg. He leads the Atlantic 10 and is ranked sixth in the nation in rebounding. Butler is second on the team and is ranked 12th in the Atlantic 10, averaging 14.5 ppg, and he also lead the squad with 85 assists. He is currently eighth on the Fordham all-time scoring list with 1,464 points.

THE ST. BONAVENTURE SERIES: Wednesday night's contest will be the 32nd meeting between Fordham and St. Bonaventure on the hardwood...The Bonnies lead the all-time series, which started in the 1955-56 season, 17-14 (two St. Bonaventure wins in 2002-03 were later forfeited for use of an ineligible player)... The Bonnies took this year's first meeting, 69-60, in the Rose Hill Gym on January 29th as Andrew Nicholson scored 25 points and grabbed eleven rebounds...St. Bonaventure took both of last year's meetings, winning 72-61, in the Reilly Center on February 10th as Chris Matthews netted 22 points and Nicholson added 14 and eight rebounds and 73-68 in the Rose Hill Gym on February 24th behind 24 points and eight rebounds from Jonathan Hall and 12 from Matthews... The Bonnies have taken four of the past five meetings but Fordham has taken eight of the last 12 matchups and nine of the past 14...The two teams split a pair of games in 2008-09 with the Bonnies winning, 78-65 in the Rose Hill Gym on January 7th as five players scored in double figures, led by Matthews with 15 and Jonathan Hall with 14, while the Rams won, 67-65, in the Reilly Center on January 28th behind a game-high 25 points from Jio Fontan...Fordham is 14-16 against St. Bonaventure since joining the Atlantic 10...Prior to joining the Atlantic 10 the two teams last met in the 1955-56 season with the Bonnies defeating Fordham 66-50 in the Rose Hill Gym...St. Bonaventure has won nine of the 13 games played in Reilly Center while the Rams have won eight of the 16 in the Rose Hill Gym and the lone game at Madison Square Garden...The longest winning streak is a St. Bonaventure seven-game streak to open the series (1955-56 until 1998-99) which was matched by the a Fordham seven game streak which was snapped last year...The largest margin of victory for St. Bonaventure was 26 (73-47 on January 18, 1996)...The largest margin of victory for Fordham was 31 (91-60 on February 28, 2007).

WHO'S HOT: Sophomore forward Chris Gaston has 15 double-doubles on the year, his most recent a 26-point, 15-rebound game at Xavier on Saturday night, his 34th career double-double... Prior to that he scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against Saint Joseph's, while he also dishing out a season-high five assists against the Hawks... The previous game he netted a season-high 27 points at Temple, shooting 11-for-19 from the field, adding nine rebounds... Gaston is averaging 20.6 ppg and 10.8 rpg over his past five games... His 15 double-doubles are the most for an Atlantic 10 player this year and eleventh most in the NCAA Division I... Gaston leads the Atlantic 10 and is sixth in the nation in rebounding with an 11.1 rpg average while he also leads the Rams and is eighth in the A-10 in scoring with a 16.1 ppg average... He sits in 18th place on the Fordham all-time rebounding list with 586 career rebounds... Redshirt senior guard Brenton Butler has netted double figures in 17 of the 23 games he has played in this year, including netting 21 at Xavier on Saturday and 17 against Saint Joseph's last Sunday... He has also surpassed the 20-point mark five times this year, including a season-high 28 points in the loss at Santa Clara... Butler, who is now eighth on the Fordham all-time scoring list with 1,464 points, is averaging 14.5 ppg, second best on the team and 13th best in the Atlantic 10, while also leading the squad with 85 assists... Freshman guard Branden Frazier has his collegiate career off to a good start, averaging 12.0 ppg, third best on the squad, including scoring eleven at Temple and 17 versus Saint Joseph's... He has scored in double figures in seven of the last eight games he has appeared in... Frazier leads the team and is fourth in the Atlantic 10 with 52 three-pointers made... Junior forward Kervin Bristol grabbed 11 rebounds, scored six points and blocked five shots against Richmond, scored six points, pulled down eleven rebounds and blocked four shots at Temple and then finished with six points, ten rebounds and five blocks against Saint Joseph's... He also pulled down ten rebounds at Xavier, his fifth straight double-digit rebounding game... He is averaging 11.0 rpg over the past five and 10.3 rpg over the past seven games and has blocked 13 shots in the last four contests.

RAMS LOOK TO SNAP A-10 LOSING STREAK: With the loss to Xavier on Saturday, the Fordham Rams' Atlantic 10 losing streak moved to 38 games, dating back to 2009. The last Fordham conference win was a 67-65 victory at St. Bonaventure on January 28, 2009. Fordham's last home Atlantic 10 victory occurred on March 8, 2008 and was also against St. Bonaventure, 69-62, a stretch of 22 games

GASTON CLIMBING CAREER REBOUND LIST: In just two years, sophomore forward Chris Gaston has already moved into the top 20 all-time rebounders in Fordham history with 586 career boards. The 586 rebounds place him in 18th place, 25 behind Bob Melvin (1960-63) for 17th place.

Ed Conlin (1951-55) is Fordham's all-time rebounding leader with 1,930 career boards, almost 900 more than Dan Lyons (1951-55), who is in second place with 1,049.

BUTLER SCORES 1,000: Senior guard Brenton Butler became the 34th player in Fordham history to surpass 1,000 career points with his 26-point effort at St. Bonaventure on February 10th last year. With the 21 points scored at Xavier, he now has 1,464 career points, moving him into eighth on the Fordham all-time scoring list.