Richmond, Va. – The James River, which wind through downtown Richmond, is the only Class IV white water rapids that flows through a major city in the United States. The classification is for long, difficult rapids that require complex maneuvering. The Fordham men's basketball team must have felt as if they were riding the rapids on Saturday afternoon at VCU's Siegel Center, running into a first-place VCU team that handed Fordham an 80-61 Atlantic 10 loss.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 21-6 overall, 9-5 in the Atlantic 10, while VCU improves to 20-7 overall, 11-3 in the conference.
Freshman guard
Will Richardson led Fordham with a season-high 21 points, shooting 6-for-10 from behind the arc, while grad student guard
Darius Quisenberry added 15 points for Fordham.
Fordham trailed 11-2 three minutes into game before an 18-9 run helped the visitors pull even at 20 on a Richardson three, his third of the half, with 7:06 on the clock.
A few minutes later VCU led by one, 23-21, when the home Rams scored 12 unanswered point to take 35-22 lead with just under two minutes remaining and VCU took a 37-24 lead into the break.
A Quisenberry three-pointer 31 seconds into the second half made it a ten-point game, 37-27, but VCU used a 10-4 run to turn a 44-30 lead into a 54-34 lead with 12:32 left in the game. The closest Fordham would get from that point was 15, 67-52, on a
Kyle Rose three-point play with 4:43 on the clock.
Takeaways
• Junior center
Abdou Tsimbila blocked three shots today to bring his season total to 49.
• Tsimbila has blocked at least one shot in 22 of the 27 games this year.
• Nine different players scored for Fordham.
• It was the seventh straight game that Fordham played before a sold out crowd.
• Fordham lost for the first time in seven Saturday games this year.
• VCU entered the game second in the A-10 in scoring defense (62.9 ppg).
• There are four Division I schools that use Rams as their nickname, three of those are in the Atlantic 10 (Fordham, Rhode Island, and VCU – the other is Colorado State).
By the Numbers
21 – Season-high point total for
Will Richardson (previous high was 19 at La Salle).
43 – Total fouls called in the game.
107 – Career double figure scoring games for
Darius Quisenberry.
910 – Career points for
Khalid Moore.
2,073 – Career points for
Darius Quisenberry
What's Next?
• The Rams continue the 2022-2023 Atlantic 10 season by traveling to Chicago to face the newest member of the conference, the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers in Gentile Arena on Wednesday, February 22, at 9:00 p.m. (EST)
• It will be the third meeting between Fordham and Loyola on the hardwood.
• The all-time series is tied, 1-1.
• The Ramblers took the first meeting, 64-50, on November 26, 2011 in Chicago while the Rams won the second, 83-69, in the Rose Hill Gym on December 23, 2013.
