Amherst, Mass. – The two teams entered tonight's game very familiar with each other, having just faced off two night prior. As American photographer Tierney Gearon once said "Even in the familiar there can be surprise and wonder." For the Fordham men's basketball team the wonder was coming back from a 13-point halftime deficit to tie the game in the second half before falling to the University of Massachusetts, 81-73, in an Atlantic 10 game in the Mullins Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 14-15 overall, 7-10 in the Atlantic 10, while Massachusetts moves to 13-16 overall, 6-11 in the conference.
The Rams were led by grad student forward
Chuba Ohams, who tied a school record with his 19th double-double of the year, scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. He ties the shot clock era record set by Chris Gaston as a freshman in 2009-2010. Grad student guard
Darius Quisenberry added 15 for the Rams while sophomore forward
Abdou Tsimbila and grad student guard
Josh Colon-Navarro also scored in double figures with ten points each.
Trailing by 13 at the half, 44-31, the Rams opened the second half with an 11-6 run to cut the deficit to six, 50-44, on a
Darius Quisenberry layup.
Fordham trailed by six again later in the half, 60-54, but managed to tie the game at 62 on a Quisenberry basket that capped an 8-2 run with 9:33 remaining.
It was a two-point game later in the period, 68-66, when the Fordham shooting went cold as the Rams were held without a field goal over the final nine minutes.
The Rams led by three, 19-16, with 10:28 left in the first when the Minutemen used a 15-4 run to take a 31-23 lead with 4:16 remaining.
Fordham managed to trim the deficit to seven, 36-29, but UMass closed out the half with an 8-2 spurt to take a 44-31 halftime lead.
Takeaways
•
Chuba Ohams dished out five assists for the second straight game.
• It was the third game in last five days for both teams.
• Fordham shot 36.5% (23-63) tonight after shooting 49.2% (31-63) on Monday night.
Jones
• UMass entered game averaging 9.8 three-pointers/game but connect on just seven tonight after hitting six on Monday.
• There was a moment of silence prior to the game in solidarity with Fordham's
Rostyslav Novitskyi and UMass women's tennis student-athlete, Anna Napadiy, both natives of Ukraine.
By the Numbers
8 – Points for
Zach Riley, a season-high.
10 – Points for
Abdou Tsimbila, a career-high (previous high was six).
11.1 –
Josh Colon-Navarro's scoring average over past ten games.
19 – Double-doubles on the year for
Chuba Ohams, one shy of the Fordham record during the shot clock era.
24 – Career double-doubles for
Chuba Ohams.
90.5% - Free throw shooting percentage for the Ram (19-21).
109 – Career blocks for
Chuba Ohams, moving him ahead of Ed Bona (1979-1983) and into eighth all-time at Fordham.
704 – Career rebounds for
Chuba Ohams, moving him ahead of John Coalmon (1958-1961) and into 12th on the Fordham career rebounding list.
What's Next?
• The Rams return to action and close out the Atlantic 10 regular season on Saturday, March 5, as they host the George Washington University Colonials in the historic Rose Hill Gym at 2:00 p.m.
• It will be the 41st meeting between Fordham and George Washington on the hardwood.
• The Colonials lead the all-time series, which started in the 1914-15 season, 30-10.
• The Colonials took this year's first meeting, 64-55, in Washington, D.C., on January 30 as James Bishop scored a game-high 25 points for the Colonials.
