Men’s Basketball Upends George Mason, 80-68

Box Score Fairfax, Va. (February 18, 2015) - Wednesday night, the Chinese New Year was celebrated all over the world. In Fairfax, Virginia, the Fordham University men's basketball team decided to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Ram* by snapping a 13-game Atlantic 10 road losing streak with an 80-68 victory over George Mason University in the Patriot Center.
 
With the win, Fordham's third over the past four games, the Rams improve to 8-17 overall, 3-10 in the Atlantic 10, while George Mason falls to 8-16 overall, 3-10 in the conference.
 
The Rams won for the third time in four games for the first time since 2008 and won by double digits for the third time in four games for the first time since 2006.
 

Fordham was led by junior guard Mandell Thomas, who recorded his second straight 20-point game, matching his career-high with 25 points, while Eric Paschall added 21 points and Christian Sengfelder chipped in with 14 points and seven rebounds. Bryan Smith also finished in double figures with eleven points while also grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists.
 
The Rams scored more than 70 points for the fifth time in the last six games and surpassed the 80-point mark for the second time over that stretch. They did it tonight with hot shooting, connecting on over 50% of their shots (26-49/53.1%) for the fourth time this year, and tied a season-high with eleven three-pointers, shooting a sizzling 61.1% (11-18) from behind the arc.
 
Fordham trailed for just about the entire first half and for the first 10:30 of the second half before the second of back-to-back Sengfelder three-pointers gave the Rams their first lead of the night, 54-52, with 9:30 left.
 
A Nemanja Zarkovic layup forty seconds later bumped the Fordham lead to four, 56-52, before a 6-2 Patriot spurt tied the game at 58 with 7:16 remaining.
 
A Bryan Smith three for Fordham was answered by a Patrick Holloway trifecta for George Mason to tie the game for a fifth time, 61-61, 2:17 later. A Jon Severe jumper and Paschall three-pointer gave Fordham a five-point advantage, 68-63, but a pair of Isaiah Jackson free throws carved the Rams' lead back to three, 66-63, with just under five minutes remaining.
 
The Rams led by four, 68-64, 40 seconds later when a Severe jumper ignited a 10-1 Fordham run as the Rams took their biggest lead of the night, 78-65, on a pair of Smith charity shots with 29 seconds left.
 
The Rams return to action on Saturday, February 21, as they travel to Davidson, N.C., to fact the newest member of the Atlantic 10, the Davidson College Wildcats at 7:00 p.m.
 
Notes
Thomas set his career high with 25 points at VCU in 2014… The 25 points tonight bring his career total to 966, moving him into 37^th place on the school's all-time scoring list… He is averaging 20.7 ppg over the past three… The game was the ninth career 20-point game for Thomas… Thomas had three steals in the game to bring his team-leading total to 53… He has at least one steal in all but two games this year… Paschall surpassed 20 points for the seventh time this year… He is averaging 19.3 ppg over the past four… The Rams have won all four meetings with George Mason but this was the first matchup in Fairfax… After allowing the Patriots to shoot 61.9% from the field in the first half, the Rams held George Mason to 30.0% shooting in the second half… The Rams are averaging 75.7 ppg over the past six games… The game featured the top two offensive rebounding teams in the conference and the Patriots won the offensive rebounding total, 10-6, but the Rams outrebounded George Mason, 30-29, in the game… The win was Fordham's first in the state of Virginia since a 2007 victory at Richmond…  There were a lot of Fordham connections on the George Mason roster… Two players hail from Queens, Corey Edwards who played at Christ the King High School with Severe and Marquise Moore, who played at St. Thomas More Prep School where Director of Basketball Operations Michael Quinn's father is the head coach, while head coach Paul Hewitt served as an assistant at Fordham under Nick Marcarchuk.
 
* Confusion abounds as to whether the coming year is dedicated to the sheep, ram, or goat as the same character was used to symbolize all three of those animals in ancient China.