Men’s Basketball Travels to Massachusetts on Saturday

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Amherst, Mass. (February 27, 2015) - The Fordham University Rams continue their 2014-2015 season, the 112th season of varsity basketball at Rose Hill, and continue their Atlantic 10 season by traveling to Amherst, Mass., to face the University of Massachusetts Minutemen in Mullins Center on Saturday, February 28, at 4:00 p.m.
 
The game will be streamed live on the Atlantic 10 Digital Network and also broadcast on WFUV (90.7 FM) and www.wfuvsports.org and can be followed live via livestats. Follow the links above.
 

Fordham enters the game with a 9-17 overall record, 4-11 in the Atlantic 10, following a 63-48 conference win over La Salle in the Rose Hill Gym on Wednesday. Massachusetts enters the game with a 16-12 overall record, 9-6 in the A-10, after an 82-71 league loss to Saint Joseph's in Amherst on Wednesday.
 
Saturday afternoon's contest will be the 41^st meeting between Fordham and Massachusetts on the hardwood with the Minutemen leading the all-time series, which started in the 1967-68 season, 28-12. UMass took this year's first meeting, 78-72, in the Rose Hill Gym on February 1 as Trey Davis finished with 26 points for the Minutemen while Eric Paschall had 17 for the Rams.
 
Notes
* 75 years ago to the day Saturday, Fordham appeared in the first ever televised college basketball team when they took on Pitt at Madison Square Garden. Read about it here.
 
* Fordham freshmen Eric Paschall and Chris Sengfelder are the only set of freshman teammates to be averaging more than 10.0 ppg and 5.0 rpg. Paschall is third in the Atlantic 10 in scoring with a 16.8 ppg average while also pulling down 5.5 rpg, while Sen­gfelder is averaging 11.2 ppg and 7.4 rpg.
 
* Through games of February 25, the Fordham Rams are back to their old habits of controlling the boards, averaging 36.7 rpg, third best in the Atlantic 10, and a +4.2 rpg margin, second best in the conference. Last year, the Rams averaged 37.2 rpg.
 
The Rams are especially adept on the offensive boards, averaging 12.2 offensive rpg, fourth best in the conference.
 
* Through games of Feb­ruary 25, the Fordham Rams have the Atlantic 10's third leading scorer, and top freshman scorer, in freshman guard Eric Paschall (16.8 ppg) while Man­dell Thomas leads the conference in steals (2.2/game). The Rams also have the fourth leading rebounder in junior forward Ryan Rhoomes (8.8 rpg) while Rhoomes is also seventh in the conference in blocked shots, averaging 1.3/game, and Thomas is sixth in assists with a 3.7 apg average.
 
* Part of the Ram's recent success in scoring is due to the improvement in free throw shoot­ing. Fordham is shooting 71.8 percent (349-486) from the charity stripe in 2014-2015, second best in the Atlantic 10.
 
Over the past eleven games, the Rams are shooting almost 80.0 percent (154-194/79.4%) from the line.
 
apropos of nothing: Amherst, Massachusetts, is named in honor of Lord Jeffery Amherst, a hero of the French and Indian War. The town has always had a focus on education, first with the formation of Amherst College in 1821 and then the establishment of Massachusetts Agricultural School in 1863, the school that would later go on to become the University of Massachusetts.
 
Many notable literary figures hail from Amherst, including Emily Dickinson, Noah Webster, of Webster's dictionary fame, and poet Robert Frost.