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Follow on Twitter Brooklyn, N.Y. (March 12, 2015) - The Fordham University Rams continue play at the 2015 Atlantic 10 Championship by facing the VCU Rams in the second round in the Barclays Center on Thursday, March 12, at 2:30 p.m.
The game will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network with Steve Schlanger (p-b-p), Dalen Cuff (color) and Carolyn Manno (sideline) announcing and broadcast on WFUV and
www.wfuvsports.org with Daniel Sixsmith, Jr., and Kenneth Ducey announcing, and can be followed live via livestats. Follow the links above.
Fordham, the 12 seed, enters the game with a 10-20 overall record following a 71-65 first round win over George Mason on Wednesday night at the Barclays Center. VCU, the fifth seed, enters the game with a 22-9 overall record after a 71-60 league win over George Mason in Richmond on Saturday.
Thursday afternoon's contest will be the fourth meeting between Fordham and VCU with VCU taking the first four meetings, including 75-458 win in the Rose Hill Gym on January 4 as Briante Weber and Treveon Graham each netted 14 points for VCU and
Eric Paschall netted 15 for Fordham.
Notes* The winner of the game will face fourth-seeded Richmond on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
Chris Sengfelder* Junior guard
Mandell Thomas netted 13 points against George Mason to bring his career total to 1,052, good for a tie for 30th on the Fordham career scoring list
* With his three steals against George Mason on Wednesday, junior guard
Mandell Thomas brought his season total to 71, tied for the fifth best single season total in school history. Jason Harris holds the school record with 78 in 1999-2000.
* With his three rebounds against George Mason on Wednesday, junior forward
Ryan Rhoomes brought his career total to 627, moving him into 17th place on the Fordham career rebounding list.
* Fordham freshmen
Eric Paschall and
Christian Sengfelder are the only set of freshman teammates to be averaging more than 10.0 ppg and 5.0 rpg. Paschall is sixth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring with a 15.9 ppg average while also pulling down 5.5 rpg, while Sengfelder is averaging 11.9 ppg and 7.2 rpg.
* Part of the Ram's recent success in scoring is due to the improvement in free throw shooting. Fordham is shooting 72.7 percent (397-546) from the charity stripe in 2014-2015, tops in the Atlantic 10. Over the past 15 games, the Rams are shooting almost 80.0 percent (202-254/79.5%) from the line.
* Through games of March 11, the Fordham Rams have the Atlantic 10's tenth leading scorer, and top freshman scorer, in freshman guard
Eric Paschall (15.9 ppg) while
Mandell Thomas leads the conference in steals (2.4/game). The Rams also have the fifth leading rebounder in junior forward
Ryan Rhoomes (8.7 rpg) while Rhoomes is also sixth in the conference in blocked shots, averaging 1.3/game, and Paschall is fourth in free throw shooting (79.4%) and Thomas is seventh in assists with a 3.7 apg average
* The Rams are 3-2 all-time in the Barclays Center
apropos of nothing: Originally the Barclays Center was to be designed by Frank Gehry but due to costs, the Gehry plan was scrapped. The actual building, designed by SHop Architects and AECOM features an unusual brown metallic facade that has been the occasion for much humorous-to-caustic jibes, Brooklyn style. The arena's "weathering steel" facade is made of 12,000 unique panels made of 600 tons of steel sheets. And so you can see it at night, too, the whole structure is lit by 1,900 LED lights at night.
In its first year of existence, the Barclays Center surpassed Madison Square Garden as the highest-grossing venue in the United States for concerts and family shows, not counting sports tickets. Barclays ranked third in the world at the time, behind only the O2 arena in London and Manchester Arena in England.
