Box Score March 2, 2011
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa. -
If you're a fan of rebounding, La Salle's Tom Gola Arena was the place to be on Wednesday night as Fordham and La Salle combined for over 100 rebounds. Of course, in order to rebound there must be missed shots and unfortunately for the Rams most of the misses came off their shots as Fordham fell to La Salle, 86-61, in an Atlantic 10 match-up.
With the loss, Fordham's 17th straight, the Rams fall to 6-21 overall, 0-15 in the Atlantic 10, while La Salle improves to 14-16 overall, 6-9 in the conference.
Fordham had its opportunities in the game, hoisting up a season-high 87 shots but the visitors were only able to connect on 25 of those, shooting a season-low 28.7% from the field. The Rams also had second chances, grabbing 30 offensive rebounds but could only score 20 second chance points.
The Rams fell despite a double-double from Chris Gaston, who scored 19 points and added 17 rebounds, his 16th double-double of the year. He also added three blocks and one steal.
The game started slowly with the Rams trailing 6-2 in the first three minutes. A Gaston tip-in made it a two-point game, 6-4, with 16:08 left in the half before the Explorers netted four straight to take a 10-4 lead 33 seconds later.
A Gaston free throw with 14:50 remaining in the half pulled the Rams to within five. Five minutes later, La Salle led by ten, 19-9, following a Jerrell Williams dunk but layups from Gaston and Kervin Bristol made it a six-point game, 19-13, with 9:14 left in the half.
Later in the half Fordham trailed by eight, 23-15, with 6:45 remaining but the Explorers closed out the half with a 22-6 run to take a commanding 45-21 lead at the break.
The closest the Rams would get in the second half was 23, which occurred three times, the final at 84-61, on a Bernard Gifford three-pointer with 1:46 left.
Brenton Butler also netted double figures for the Rams, finishing with 13 points and grabbing six rebounds while Lamount Samuell added nine points and Bristol chipped in with eight points, seven rebounds and five blocks.
The Rams will next be in action on Saturday as they close out the 2011 Atlantic 10 season by hosting the University of Massachusetts in the Rose Hill Gym for Senior Day at 1:00 PM.
Notes
La Salle has now taken the past four meetings with Fordham and lead the all-time series, 31-13... The loss extends Fordham's Atlantic 10 losing streak to 41 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 bring his career total to 1,494, placing him in eighth place on the Fordham all-time scoring list... Gaston now has 35 double-doubles in 55 career games... His 17 rebounds bring his career total to 621, moving him ahead of Bob Melvin and into 17th place on the Fordham career rebounding list... Gaston is five behind Joe Paterno (1985-89) for 16th place... Bristol's seven rebounds mark only the second time in the past eight games he didn't record double-digit in rebounding... He is averaging 10.0 rpg over the past eight games... Bristol tied his season-high with the five blocks and now has blocked 22 shots over the past seven games and has a team-high 50 on the season... He has blocked at least one shot in each of the last ten games and in 21 of the 26 games this year... Gifford hit a pair of three-pointers in the game, his first collegiate points... The 52 rebounds for Fordham is a season-high for the Rams (the previous high was 50 against Hampton) while La Salle's 56 rebounds ties the season-high for a Fordham opponent (Dayton).
