Kingston, R.I. – On this day in 1970, the Beatles had their last recording session at Abbey Road studios, a session that included "Long and Winding Road." Well it was a long and winding road trip for the Fordham men's basketball squad tonight as the visiting Rams went down big early, came back to make it a two-point game late, but fell 82-79 to the University of Rhode Island at the South County Health Court at the Ryan Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 12-3 overall, 0-2 in the Atlantic 10, while Rhode Island improves to 5-9 overall, 1-1 in the conference.
Grad student guard
Darius Quisenberry led all scorers in the game with a season-high 33 points, shooting 9-for-16 from the field, and he added four assists while junior guard
Antrell Charlton netted 13 points, with a 5-for-9 night from the field.
Fordham was down ten, 76-66, with 2:40 remaining but used a 10-2 run to make it a 78-76 game with 56 seconds on the clock. A Rhode Island layup with 30 seconds left bumped the Rhode Island lead to four and the closest Fordham would get was two, 81-79, on an
Antrell Charlton three with one second remaining.
Fordham trailed by six at the break, 36-30, but Rhode Island used a 14-2 run early in the second half to take a 56-39 lead with 12:50 left.
Fordham responded with a 12-2 run to cut the Rhode Island lead to seven, 58-51, on a Quisenberry three midway through the second.
Fordham would trail by seven three more times over the next 2:15, the final at 63-56 with 7:26 left.
The Fordham offense got off to a slow start at Rhode Island used a 12-1 run to turn a 13-6 advantage into a 25-7 lead midway through the first half.
The Fordham offense then got on track as the visiting Rams scored ten unanswered points to cut the deficit to eight, 25-17, following an
Abdou Tsimbila layup with 7:28 remaining.
Rhode Island got the lead back to eleven, 30-19, 1:28 later but a 9-0 Fordham run pulled the Rams to within two, 30-28, with 2:34 on the clock.
Rhode Island closed out the half with a 6-2 spurt to take a 36-30 lead at the break.
Takeaways
• After being held to two points against Davidson last week, his lone non-double digit scoring game,
Darius Quisenberry responded with a season-high 33 points.
•
Abdou Tsimbila entered the game leading the Atlantic 10 in blocks (2.4/game) but did not record a block for just the second game this season.
• Fordham fell for the first time this year when scoring more than 70 points.
• Former Ram Luke Devine was in attendance tonight.
• Former Fordham men's basketball video coordinator Duane Woodward is an assistant at URI.
By the Numbers
11 – Free throws made by
Darius Quisenberry, a season-high.
12 - Rebounds for
Abdou Tsimbila, his fourth double-digit rebounding game.
33 – Points scored by
Darius Quisenberry, a season-high for the Rams (Quisenberry's previous season-best was 25 which he did twice, most recently vs. Wagner)
What's Next?
• The Rams continue the 2022-2023 Atlantic 10 season by hosting the Saint Joseph's University Hawks in the historic Rose Hill Gym on Saturday, January 7, at 2:00 p.m.
• It will be the 59th meeting between Fordham and Saint Joseph's on the hardwood.
• The Hawks lead the all-time series, which started in the 1919-20 season, 40- 18, and have won eight of the past nine over the Rams.
• Saint Joseph's took the most recent matchup, 72-69, in Philadelphia last February 5 as Erik Reynolds III scored a game-high 23 points for the Hawks while
Darius Quisenberry netted 19 for the Rams.
