Box Score Feb. 26, 2011
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East Rutherford, N.J. -
Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go your way? Those days when you feel like the statue and not the pigeon? The Fordham University men's basketball team had one of those days today as the Rams suffered their worst defeat of the season, falling to the University of Rhode Island, 90-58, in an Atlantic 10 game in the IZOD Center on Saturday.
With the loss, Fordham's 16th in a row, the Rams fall to 6-20 overall, 0-14 in the Atlantic 10, while Rhode Island improves to 18-10 overall, 9-5 in the conference.
"I'm disappointed in our performance today," said head coach Tom Pecora. "This was one of the few games this year where we didn't compete. Part of being a good team is getting a consistent effort and we haven't been able to give a consistent effort."
Fordham shot 32.3% (21-65) from the field, including 23.5% (4-17) from behind the arc while Rhode Island connected on 52.2% (35-67) of its shots, including 57.1% (8-14) from long distance. Fordham was also outrebounded, 47-34, and was outscored in the paint, 46-22, by the visitors.
The home team couldn't find an answer for Rhode Island's Delroy James, who netted 29 points, one shy for the season high for a Fordham opponent this year, and added eight rebounds and three steals.
Rhode Island opened the game scoring ten straight points over the first 3:41 before a Brenton Butler jumper started a 7-2 run as Fordham cut the deficit to five, 12-7, on a Butler three-pointer with 14:45 left in the first. Branden Frazier accounted for the other two points in the Fordham run.
But Rhode Island responded with 13 unanswered points to take a 25-7 lead on a James layup with 11:10 remaining in the period.
A Chris Gaston layup 15 seconds later halted the Rhode Island run and Fordham trailed by 16 again, 30-14, three minutes later, but Rhode Island closed out the half with a 16-3 spurt to take a 46-19 lead at the break.
The second half wasn't much better for Fordham as Rhode Island quickly built the lead to 33, 55-22, two minutes into the period.
Butler led Fordham with 12 points while Frazier, Gaston and Lamount Samuell each added ten. Gaston added nine rebounds with his ten points while Rayner Moquete finished with a career-high eight points.
Fordham will next be in action on Wednesday, March 2nd, as they travel to Philadelphia to face the La Salle University Explorers in an Atlantic 10 game at 7:00 PM.
Notes
Rhode Island has won the past eight meetings between the two Atlantic 10 Rams' and now lead the all-time series, 33-22... The loss extends Fordham's Atlantic 10 losing streak to 40 games dating back to 2009... The last Fordham conference win was a 67-65 victory at St. Bonaventure on January 28, 2009... Butler's 12 points brings his career total to 1,482, placing him eighth on the Fordham all-time scoring list... Gaston's nine rebounds bring his career total to 604, good for 18th on the Fordham all-time rebounding list... He is seven behind Bob Melvin for 17th place... Kervin Bristol pulled down a game-high eleven rebounds, the sixth tie in the past seven games he has recorded double-digits in rebounding... He is averaging 10.4 rpg over the past seven games and 10.0 rpg over the past nine... Bristol also blocked two shots to bring his total to 17 in the past six games and a team-high 45 on the season... He has blocked at least one shot in each of the last nine games and in 20 of the 26 games this year... Moquete's previous career-high in scoring was seven, a feat he accomplished twice, the last time earlier this year against American... Rhode Island's 90 points is one shy of an opponent's high against Fordham (Dayton and Duquesne scored 91) this year while URI's 35 field goals ties a season high for a Fordham opponent (Dayton)... The Rams are now 11-15 all-time at the IZOD Center.
