Gallery: (11-7-2022) MBB vs. Dartmouth
Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham head men's basketball coach
Keith Urgo waited a long time for tonight. Ever since he accepted a position as an assistant coach at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C., he dreamed of being a college head coach. That dream came true tonight as Urgo led the Rams to an 88-74 win over Dartmouth College in the Rose Hill Gym.
The Fordham offense was led by grad student guard
Darius Quisenberry, who scored a team-high 20 points, while grad student forward
Khalid Moore netted 18 in his Fordham debut, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and adding a game-high seven rebounds.
The Rams got off to a slow start, trailing 10-0 2:19 into the contest but netted the next ten points to knot the game at ten on a Quisenberry three at the 15:07 mark.
The Big Green took a five-point lead, 25-20, later the first half before the Rams used a 17-5 run to a 37-30 lead on a
Patrick Kelly basket with 4:21 remaining in the half.
Dartmouth opened the second half cutting the Fordham lead to two, 45-43, but 13 unanswered Fordham points made it a 58-43 game with 15:42 left.
Takeaways
• Urgo become the second straight Fordham head coach to win his debut.
• Last year, Kyle Neptune became the first Fordham head men's basketball coach to win in his debut since 1986 when Bob Quinn directed the 1986-1987 squad to an 81-68 win over Monmouth.
• Seven members of Urgo's family, along with numerous friends, were in attendance.
•
Antrell Charlton (16) and
Kyle Rose (11) also finished in double figures for the Rams.
• Freshmen
Romad Dean and
Will Richardson each scored their first collegiate basket tonight and freshman
Elijah Gray scored his first collegiate point on a free throw.
• The Rams are 78-36 (.684) in season openers since 1908, 83-20 (.806) in home openers.
• The Rams have won their past two season openers and four of their past five.
• The 88 points scored by Fordham is the most in a season opener versus a Division I school since the Rams netted 95 against Yale in 1972.
• Fordham now leads the all-time series with Dartmouth, 6-5.
• It was the first meeting between the Rams and the Big Green since 1977.
• The Rams outrebounded Dartmouth, 35-28.
• The two teams combined to connect on 15 three-pointers in the first half but just four in the second.
• The opener this year on November 7 was the second earliest season opener in Fordham history (the Rams opened the 2018-2019 season on Nov. 6).
• Fordham men's basketball Hall of Famer David Maxwell was at the game along with former Ram Ivan Raut.
By the Numbers
7 – Blocks by Fordham, led by three from Rostyslav Novitiskyi.
18 – Points scored by grad student forward
Khalid Moore, one shy of his collegiate career-high.
57.4% - Fordham's field goal shooting percentage (35-61).
667 – All-time Fordham wins in the Rose Hill Gym.
1,547 – All-time wins for Fordham.
What's Next?
• The Rams travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas for their first road game of the year as they face the tenth-ranked University of Arkansas Razorbacks on Friday, November 11 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) in Bud Walton Arena.
• It will be the third meeting between the Rams and the Razorbacks.
• Fordham took the first meeting, 80-73, in 1967 All-College Tournament in Oklahoma, while Arkansas was victorious sin the second, 62-61, at the 1983Great Alaska Shootout
• The Rams are 6-18 all-time against teams currently in the SEC.
• It will be Fordham's 15th game against a current member of the SEC, the first since a game at Mississippi in 2013.
