Men’s Basketball Falls at Davidson

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Davidson, N.C. (February 21, 2015) – The Fordham men's basketball squad wore its home white uniforms tonight which it hoped would make the Rams feel at home on their first visit to the Belk Arena. But Davidson left the Rams seeing red, as in the color of its uniforms, as the Wildcats defeated Fordham 76-57, in an Atlantic 10 matchup.
 
With the loss, which snapped a two-game Fordham winning streak, the Rams fell to 8-17 overall, 3-11 in the Atlantic 10, while Davidson improves to 19-6 overall, 10-4 in the conference.
 
The Rams were done in by a hot-shooting Davidson squad as the Wildcats shot 50.0 percent from the field (30-60) and 42.3 percent from behind the arc (11-26). Conversely, Fordham wasn't as hot, connecting on 37.7 percent of its field goals, 33.3 percent from behind the arc.
 

Bryan Smith paced the Rams with 15 points, and he grabbed five rebounds, while Eric Paschall finished with 14 points and seven boards and Nemanja Zarkovic added 13 points, hitting three three-pointers.
 
Fordham led 5-4 following a Christian Sengfelder three-pointer 3:05 into the game when Davidson scored 12 straight points to take a 16-5 lead with 14:46 left in the half.
 
The Rams responded with a 10-4 spurt to cut the Wildcat lead to five, 20-15, on a Zarkovic three-pointer with 9:39 on the clock. Paschall led the Fordham run with five points.
 
Fordham trailed by five, 26-21, two and-a-half minutes later before Davidson closed out the half with a 12-4 run to take a 38-25 lead at the break.
 
Paschall opened the second half with four straight points for the Rams to cut the Wildcat lead back to single digits, 38-29, but Davidson then went on a 24-5 run to take a commanding 52-34 lead with 14:14 remaining and the closest the Rams would get from there was eleven, 57-46, following a pair of Antwoine Anderson free throws midway through the half.
 
The Rams return to action on Wednesday, February 15, as they host the La Salle University Explorers for an Atlantic 10 contest in the historic Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 PM.
 
Notes
Davidson wore its red uniform at home as part of a Red Out at Belk Arena… The Wildcats have taken both meetings with the Rams (the first occurred at the 1996 Cincinnati Invitational)… Smith is averaging 12.7 ppg over the past three games… Mandell Thomas made two steals in the game to bring his team-leading total to 55… He has at least one steal in all but two games this year… Zarkovic came up one point shy of tying his season-high of 14, set at Penn State in November… Scott Smith, son of legendary North Carolina head coach Dean Smith, was one of the three officials… Davidson entered the game leading the Atlantic 10 in scoring (80.6 ppg) and three-pointers made/game (10.7)… The 60 field goal attempts by the Wildcats tied the season-high for a Fordham opponent… Fordham head coach Tom Pecora got his coaching career started with Davidson head coach Bobby McKillip when McKillip hired Pecora as an assistant coach at Long Island Lutheran High School in 1984… The Rams trailed the Wildcats 38-25, the first time over the past­ seven games Fordham was down at the intermission…  Fordham was 10-for-11 at the free throw stripe and is now shooting 79.7 percent (153-192) from the line over the past ten games… The 57 points were the fewest scored by the Rams over the past nine games… There was a rumor that Seattle Seahawk quarterback Russell Wilson, who was in town for a wedding of one of his former N.C. State teammates, was staying at the same hotel the Rams.