Men’s Basketball Falls to VCU

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Bronx, N.Y. (January 4, 2015) – The two teams have the same nickname but today the Fordham men's basketball team could have been known as the Wile E. Coyotes while the VCU squad could have been called the Roadrunners. For every time Fordham thought they had  VCU in their sights, the visitors would escape, finally pulling away for a 75-58 Atlantic 10 win over Fordham in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 5-7 overall, 0-1 in the Atlantic 10, while VCU, the preseason favorites in the conference, improves to 11-3 overall, 1-0 in the A-10.
 

The loss overshadows the second career double-double from Fordham junior guard Mandell Thomas, who finished with 14 points and ten rebounds while also recording four steals. Freshman guard Eric Paschall added 15 points and six rebounds for Fordham while Jon Severe, making his first appearance since November 23, scored nine points and had three steals.
 
VCU entered the game ranked third in the nation in turnover margin and sixth in steals and VCU improved on those numbers today, recording 21 steals while forcing Fordham into a season-high 28 turnovers which VCU converted into 36 points.
 
VCU came out strong, taking a 10-2 lead 3:26 into the game and led by 15 later in the half, 27-12, following a Jarred Guest dunk with 8:39 remaining. Fordham then got offensive, using a 14-3 run to cut the deficit to four, 30-26, on a Thomas dunk with 3:51 left in the half. Thomas, Paschall and Severe each netted four points in the spurt.
 
Fordham trailed by seven at the break, 37-30, but opened the second half with a 7-1 spurt to make it a one-point game, 38-37, following a pair of Paschall free throws 1:25 into the half. After a Graham free throw bumped the VCU lead to eight, 38-30, a Christian Sengfelder layup and free throw started a run of seven straight points for the Rams.
 
Unfortunately the Fordham offense then went cold as VCU scored 14 unanswered points over the next seven minutes to take a commanding 15-point lead, 52-37, on a Briante Weber layup with 12:21 remaining.
 
Fordham was able to cut the VCU advantage to ten, 53-43, with 11:06 remaining, outscoring VCU 6-1 with four points from Paschall and two from Severe. Fordham would get the deficit to ten three more times over the next six minutes, the last at 63-53 on a Bryan Smith layup with just over five minutes on the clock.
 
Sengfelder finished with six points and eight rebounds for the Rams while Ryan Rhoomes had four points and eight boards.
 
Fordham returns to action on Wednesday, January 7, as they travel to Kingston, R.I., to face the University of Rhode Island Rams in the Ryan Center at 7:00 p.m.
 
Notes
The ten rebounds is a season-high for Thomas, surpassing his previous high of seven against UMass Lowell… Thomas' four steals brings his team-high total to 25… Fordham outrebounded VCU, 42-33, and have now outrebounded its opponent in ten of the 12 games of 2014-2015…The 17 VCU turnovers were one shy of the most for a Fordham opponent this year (Maryland Eastern Shore and Monmouth each had 18)… Fordham is now 0-4 all-time against VCU with all four games coming over the past three years.