Box Score Dec. 8, 2012
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New York, N.Y. -
The Fordham Rams won the battle of the boards against St. John's on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, outrebounding the Red Storm, 55-40. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win the war as St. John's outscored the Rams 16-6 at the free throw stripe en route to a 58-47 win over Fordham in the 2012 MSG Holiday Festival.
With the loss, the Rams fall to 1-8 on the year while St. John's improves to 7-3.
"If you would have told me that D'Angelo Harrison would have 14 points and St. John's would shot 32% from the field, I'd say we would have a very good chance," said Fordham head coach Tom Pecora. "But we were bothered by their length, didn't have enough poise and got into foul trouble which did us in."
The loss overshadowed another big game for Fordham sophomore Ryan Canty, who notched his first career double-double with 15 points and a career-best 16 rebounds
Neither team shot all that well in the game with the Red Storm shooting 32.8% (20-61) and the Rams a season-low 28.8% (19-66). The Garden may want to check the basket in front of the Fordham bench as both squads had trouble converting shots at that end of the court with St. John's hitting just nine of its 25 attempts at the basket and Fordham eight of 38.
When the Rams were getting shots off, some of them weren't even making it to the basket as St. John's blocked a season-high 15 shots.
The Rams led by three at the half, 27-24, but St. John's scored the first three points of the second half to knot the game at 27 40 seconds into the half.
Back-to-back Canty layups over the next 1:40 put Fordham back up four, 31-27, before Chris Obekpa and JaKarr Sampson answered with back-to-back dunks to retie the game at 31 with 16:50 left.
Ryan Rhoomes answered a Harrison jumper at 13:08 to tie the game for the seventh time, 33-33, before a Phil Greene IV three-pointer and Obekpa dunk put the Red Storm up five, 38-33, with 11:36 remaining.
The Rams battled back, using a Canty layup and Branden Frazier three-pointer to even the game for the eighth and final time, 38-38, with 10:31 on the clock.
Just under a minute later, Harrison hit a three to put St. John's up for good and start an 11-3 run as the Red Storm took a 49-41 lead on a Sampson jumper with 5:31 left.
A Frazier free throw and Travion Leonard layup got the Ram to within five, 49-44, just over a minute later, but the Red Storm scored the next six points to take a commanding 55-44 lead with 1:53 left.
The first half started out in favor of the visitors as Fordham jumped out to a 9-4 lead 5:22 into the game but consecutive baskets by Harrison allowed the Red Storm to tie the game at nine with 13:15 left in the half.
Later in the period, the Rams used a 9-2 to turn a 12-12 tie into a 21-14 advantage following a Leonard layup with 5:14 left.
St. John's managed to get the Fordham lead down to one, 25-24, with 1:01 remaining but a pair of Frazier free throws with four seconds on the clock gave the Rams the 27-23 halftime lead.
Frazier finished with 12 points for Fordham while Bryan Smith added eight and Jeff Short pulled down a career-high eleven rebounds to go with six points.
The Rams will now have a week off for finals before returning to action next Saturday, December 15, as the face Princeton University at the Barclays Center as part of the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival at 2:30 PM.
Notes
Canty's previous career-high in rebounding was ten, set last year at St. Bonaventure... Canty is averaging 14.3 ppg and 9.5 rpg over the past four games... Short's previous career-best in rebounding was four against Manhattan earlier this year... Fordham's 54 total rebounds is a season-high, surpassing the 42 they pulled down at Texas State and at Lehigh... St. John's 32.8% shooting percentage is the lowest for a Fordham opponent this year as were the two three-pointers made by the Red Storm... The Rams are now 43-73 all-time at Madison Square Garden, 31-56 at the current Garden... Fordham graduate and current New York Knocks announcer Mike "Wally" Walczewski handled the public address chores tonight.
