Box Score Jan. 5, 2013
Final Stats
Oxford, Miss. -
The long, strange trip that was the 2012 Fordham University men's basketball nonconference season came to an end tonight at the Tad Smith Coliseum as the Rams faced the University of Mississippi for their eighth road game on the nonconference slate. But the Rebels weren't good hosts tonight, forcing Fordham, who was playing its first ever game in the Magnolia state, to commit 22 turnovers en route to a 95-68 win over the Rams.
With the loss, the Rams close out their nonconference slate with a 4-11 record while Ole Miss improves to 11-2.
Ryan Canty returned to the starting lineup for the Rams tonight and responded with his third double-double of the year, scoring 15 points and adding ten rebounds, both team highs. He shot 6-for-8 from the field and also blocked a pair of shots.
Fordham's top two scorers entering the game, Branden Frazier and Chris Gaston, were held in check by the Ole Miss defense, scoring just six points each.
The game started off close with the Rams jumping out to a 10-6 lead 3:04 into the game with Canty accounting for four of the ten Fordham points and Bryan Smith and Mandell Thomas each connecting on a three-pointer in the opening run.
Four straight Ole Miss points tied the game at ten with 15:26 left in the half before a Canty tip-in helped Fordham regain the lead, 12-10, just over a minute later.
The Rams led by one, 14-13, after Gaston hit a pair of free throws with 13:25 on the clock when the Rebels scored ten straight points to take a 23-14 two minutes later.
Consecutive Canty baskets helped Fordham trim the Ole Miss lead back to five, 23-18, midway through the first half and the Rams would get the Rebels' advantage down to four, 25-21, on a Smith three-pointer with 9:29 remaining.
Following the Smith trey, Ole Miss outscored Fordham 14-1 over a five-minute stretch to take a 39-22 lead with 4:20 left but the Rams were able to whittle away the Rebels' lead, eventually cutting it to eleven , 46-35, at the half, thanks to a Thomas layup just before the halftime buzzer.
Ole Miss bumped the lead to 16 over the first two minutes of the second half, 53-37, before the Rams trimmed it back to eleven, 53-42, on a Smith three-pointer and a Thomas layup. But that was as close as Fordham would get as the Rebels went on a 10-2 run to open a 63-44 lead with 14:13 left and the closest the Rams would get from that point was 16, 69-53 on a Smith trifecta at the 11:03 mark.
Smith finished with 14 for the Rams, hitting four three-pointers, while Thomas tied his season-high with 12 points and Travion Leonard added eight points and six rebounds.
The Rams return to action on Wednesday, January 9, as they open their Atlantic 10 schedule by hosting the Duquesne University Dukes in the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 p.m. in a game that will be televised live on the YES Network.
Notes
Gaston's six points brings his career total to 1,545, good for eighth place on the Fordham all-time scoring list... He is 142 points behind Ken Charles (1970-73) for seventh place... Gaston also had one rebound in the game to bring his career total to 975, fourth on the school's all-time rebounding list... He is 18 rebounds behind Bryant Dunston (2004-08) for third on the all-time rebounding list... Frazier had a streak of six straight double-figuring scoring games snapped... Frazier dished out a team-high six assist to bring his team-leading total to 77 on the season... Smith connected on four three-pointers for the second straight game... The Rams were outrebounded 39-38 but had 19 offensive rebounds... Fordham tied a season-high with nine three-pointers in the game... The Rams are now 0-2 all-time against Ole Miss... Fordham's nonconference season consisted of eight road games and three neutral site games in seven different states... All eleven players who dressed for the Rams saw action tonight.
