Men’s Basketball Falls to UMass, 78-72

Bronx, N.Y. (February 4, 2015) -  A college basketball game is 40 minutes long. But tonight's Fordham-Massachusetts game was decided in a four minute stretch in the second half as the Minutemen scored ten straight points to build an eleven-point lead en route to a 78-72 Atlantic 10 win over Fordham in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 5-15 overall, 0-8 in the Atlantic 10, while Massachusetts improves to 13-9 overall, 6-3 in the conference.
 
For the second straight home game, Fordham took a team from the upper half of the Atlantic 10 to the limit but, after leading for most of the first half, the Rams couldn't overcome a slow start to the second half.
 

Eric Paschall led the Rams with 17 points while Jon Severe chipped in with 14 and Bryan Smith added 13. Christian Sengfelder finished with nine points and a season-high 16 rebounds.
 
Fordham jumped out to a 9-5 lead 4:20 into the game, with four of those from Smith, but the Minutemen managed to carve the Fordham lead down to two, 14-12, with 13:45 left in the half.
 
A Severe three-pointer and a pair of Dekeba Battee-Aston free throws over the next 1:07 pushed the Fordham lead to seven, 19-12, and the Rams would lead by seven again, 28-21, with 8:25 remaining following an Antwoine Anderson free throw. The Rams would get the lead to as many as nine, 37-28, on a Paschall three with 4:31 on the clock.
 
Massachusetts responded with seven straight points to cut the Fordham lead to two, 37-35, with 2:28 left but the Rams scored the final four points of the half to take a 41-35 lead at the break.
 
The Minutemen opened the second half with a 10-4 spurt to tie the game at 45 on a Trey Davis layup with 16:12 left. The game was tied at 47 just over two minutes later when Massachusetts took advantage of some Fordham miscues to go on a 13-2 run, including ten unanswered points, to take its biggest lead of the night, 60-49, midway through the second half.
 
The Rams wouldn't back down and started to chip away at the Minuteman advantage, netting eleven unanswered points to cut the deficit to two, 62-60, on a pair of Severe charity shots with 5:10 remaining. Mandell Thomas led the Rams with four points in the run.
 
Derrick Gordon's jumper with 4:48 on the clock halted the Fordham run and helped started a 6-0  Massachusetts spurt as the Minutemen built an eight-point lead, 68-60, with just under three minutes left.
 
Fordham got the UMass lead down to four twice in the final 16 seconds but could get no closer.
 
Ryan Rhoomes and Thomas each added eight points for the Rams with Rhoomes grabbing nine rebounds and Thomas dishing out five assists and adding three steals.
 
Fordham returns to action on Saturday, February 7, as they host the Saint Louis University Billikens in an Atlantic 10 contest in the Rose Hill Gym at 4:00 p.m. in a game that will be televised by the NBC Sports Network.
 
Notes
Sengfelder's 16 rebounds is one shy of Rhoomes' season-high of 17 (set against Siena) for the Rams… Sengfelder's previous season-best for rebounds was eleven versus Monmouth… Thomas' three steals brings his team-high season total to 46… He has at least one steal in all but two games this year… Severe, who was 7-for-7 from the free throw line tonight, is averaging 15.0 ppg over the past four games… The Rams outrebounded UMass, 42-37, and has now outrebounded its opponent in 13 of the 20 games this year… Fordham outscored the Minutemen, 30-24, in the paint.