Box Score March 2, 2013
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa. -
Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love but it hasn't shown the Fordham University men's basketball program much love this year as the Rams dropped their second game of the season in the city tonight, falling to Saint Joseph's, 82-56, in an Atlantic 10 game in the Michael J. Hagan Arena.
Playing without the services of senior Chris Gaston, who missed the game due to illness, the Rams needed someone to step up and Ryan Canty rose to the occasion, scoring 14 points and adding a game-high 15 rebounds, one shy of his career-high, for his fourth double-double of the year. But Canty's court time was limited as he picked up two fouls in the first 1:30 and three in the first half, which restricted him to just 23 minutes of playing time.
The Fordham game plan was to prevent the Saint Joseph's offense from getting off to a hot start and the Rams accomplished that, holding the home team to just two points over the first five minutes. Unfortunately the Fordham offense couldn't get on track either, missing its first eleven shots as the Hawks took a 10-0 lead 6:39 into the game.
A Mandell Thomas jumper got Fordham on the board at the 13:07 mark and the basket ignited the Rams' offense as another Thomas jumper and a Travion Leonard layup over the next 1:28 helped Fordham pull within four, 10-6.
A Carl Jones three started a 14-3 run for Saint Joseph's as the Hawks took a 15-point lead, 24-9, following a pair of Chris Wilson free throws with 8:23 left in the half.
A 5-2 Fordham spurt made it a 12-point contest, 26-14, on a Jeffrey Short three-pointer with 6:54 on the clock but the Hawks managed to the get the lead to as many as 19 later in the half before a Branden Frazer layup with 39 seconds left made it a 39-22 game at the break.
The Hawks increased their lead to 20 early in the second half, 45-25, before the Rams went on a 7-2 run to trim the deficit to 15, 47-32, on a Short jumper with 14:53 left.
But Saint Joseph's was able to get the lead to 22, going up 61-39 with 9:07 remaining, before a Fordham 11-3 spurt made it a 64-50 game following a pair of Jermaine Myers free throws three minutes later. The Rams had a chance to get closer but a Short three-pointer was off and Canty couldn't convert on the offensive rebound. The Hawks then scored six straight to make it a 20-point game, 70-50, with 2:38 left and the closest Fordham would get from that point was 17, 72-55 ,on a Frazier three-pointer just over a minute later.
Thomas finished with a team-high 15 points for the Rams, and he added eight rebounds and three assists, while Frazier added eleven points and Short eight.
With the loss, the Rams fall to 6-23 overall, 2-12 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Joseph's improves to 16-11 overall, 7-7 in the conference.
The Rams return to action on Wednesday, March 6, as they host the Temple University Owls in an Atlantic 10 contest in the Rose Hill Gym in the final home game of the 2012-2013 season at 7:00 p.m.
Notes
The Fordham women's team, who closes out its regular season at Temple on Sunday at 2:00 p.m., attended the game... Frazier's eleven points bring his career total to 1,049, good for 30th on the Fordham all-time scoring list, three points behind Sanford Jenkins (1988-1992) for 29th... Thomas' eight rebounds was one shy of his season-high... Short got first collegiate start in the game... The Rams outrebounded the Hawks, 40-37, in the game... 13 of Fordham's 40 rebounds were offensive, with seven of those coming from Canty, while the Rams held the Hawks to just five offensive boards... The starting lineup of Frazier, Thomas, Leonard, Short and Canty was the 12th different starting lineup for the Rams this year... It was a big college basketball day in Philadelphia as all three A-10 schools in the city were at home today (Rhode Island was at Temple and Duquesne was at La Salle) as were Penn and Drexel.
