NEW YORK – Playing its first contest at Madison Square Garden in seven years, the Fordham men's basketball team saw St. John's pull away for a 77-55 victory on Saturday afternoon in the Holiday Festival.
With the loss, Fordham fell to 5-6 while the Red Storm improved to 7-3.
The front-court duo of
Joshua Rivera and
Abdou Tsimbila led the way for Fordham. Rivera finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with five rebounds while Tsimbila tallied 12 points, seven boards and a pair of blocks. They were outdone, however, by former Ram Joel Soriano, who posted a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double in addition to three blocks for the Red Storm.
Japhet Medor logged seven points and a team-high four assists.
As a team, the Rams turned in their best free throw shooting performance of the season, converting on 23 of their 26 chances from the charity stripe (88.5%).
St. John's scored the first eight points of the game on its way to an early 11-2 lead. The Johnnies climbed ahead by as many as 18 just past the midway marking of the period before the Rams began to chip into the advantage, closing the half on a 10-4 run and pulling within 11, 39-28, at the intermission.
Fordham carried that positive momentum into the second stanza, as a
Kyle Rose 3-pointer pulled the Rams within eight, 41-33, with just over a minute gone in the half. St. John's responded with a 12-2 run, matching its largest lead of the game to that point, 53-35, with just under 14 minutes to play.
The Rams answered with six straight to trim the deficit back to 12, but quickly uncorked a 16-5 run to move ahead by 23, 69-46, with just under five minutes to play.
Fordham returns to action on Thursday, Dec. 21, when it hosts CCSU at The Rose Hill Gym. The game will serve as the program's annual Field Trip Day, as the Rams will welcome thousands of local school children for a 12 p.m. tip.
