Box Score
Richmond, Va. (February 15, 2014) – Even though it was a day after Valentine's Day, both Fordham and Richmond were in a giving mood on Saturday night. The Rams gave up 14 turnovers while the Spiders gave the Rams 12 offensive rebounds but in the end it was the home team who took advantage of the offerings, scoring 23 points off of Fordham turnovers, as Richmond upended Fordham, 82-70, in an Atlantic 10 game in the newly refurbished Robins Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 9-15 overall, 2-10 in the Atlántico 10, while Richmond improves to 17-8 overall, 7-3 in the conference.
Fordham fell despite a game-high 28 points from freshman
Jon Severe, who shot 8–for-15 from the field and 9-for-10 from the free throw line, and 24 points and nine rebounds from senior
Branden Frazier.
The Rams outrebounded the Spiders, 37-25, in the game, led by eight from
Ryan Canty and seven from
Ryan Rhoomes, but were only able to score ten second chance points from the 12 offensive rebounds while Richmond scored seven points off of three offensive rebounds.
Trailing by nine, 46-37, with 15:56 left, a Severe three-pointer ignited a 12-5 Fordham run as the Rams pulled to within two, 51-49, on a Severe free throw with 10:38 remaining. Severe scored seven of the 12 Fordham points in the run.
A Deion Taylor three-pointer 25 seconds later halted the Rams' spurt and started a 17-6 Richmond run as the Spiders took a 68-55 lead on a Kendall Anthony steal and layup with 2:39 on the clock.
The Rams would get the Richmond lead down to eleven three times over the next 1:18, the final at 72-61, on a pair of
Jermaine Myers free throws with1:21 remaining but that was as close as they would get.
Both offenses struggled to open the game with the Spiders holding a one-point lead, 15-14, midway through the first half and the Rams trailed three, 33-30, with 2:51 left after a
Chris Whitehead lay in but Richmond closed out the half with a 5-1 spurt to take a 38-31 lead at the break.
The Rams will have a week off before traveling down to Philadelphia to face the Saint Joseph's University Hawks in an Atlantic 10 matchup on Saturday, February 22, at 2:00 PM.
Notes
Frazier's 24 points bring his career total to 1,513, good for tenth on the Fordham all-time scoring list, eleven points behind Brenton Butler (2006-11)… Frazier also had two assists to bring his career assist total to 465, good for second on the school's career list… Frazier is averaging 23.5 ppg over the past four games… The 20-point game was Frazier's team-leading 13
th of the year and the 25
th of his career while Severe notched his eleventh 20-point game this season… Severe has scored 459 points on the year, 45 points shy of
Chris Gaston's school record for a freshman… Canty is averaging 7.3 rpg over the past three games…
Mandell Thomas recorded a steal in his fifth straight game and he leads the Rams with 42 on the year… The 25 rebounds for Richmond tied a season-low for a Fordham opponent (Furman also had 25 back in December)… Richmond recognized Susan G. Koman cancer awareness day during the game with the Spiders wearing pink warm-up t-shirts … The game was a sell out with 7,201 in attendance, the fourth straight sell out road crowd for the Rams (UMass, VCU, George Washington were the other three while the game at Saint Louis was close to a sellout).
