Brooklyn, N.Y. - Tonight the clocks will be set ahead an hour for daylight savings time. For those at the Barclays Center today it seemed as if the clocks were turned back 52 years, to the 1970-1971 season when Fordham men's basketball routinely played before a packed Madison Square Garden. Fordham students and fans turned out in force, being loud and proud, as the Rams faced off against the University of Dayton in an Atlantic 10 Championship semifinal game. The student-athletes on the floor fed off that energy, giving the preseason favorite Flyers all they could handle before falling, 78-68.
With the loss, Fordham, who entered the championship seeded third (Fordham's highest ever seeding), falls to 25-8 on the year while Dayton, the two-seed, improves to 22-11 and advances to face top-seeded VCU in the championship game on Sunday.
Grad student forward
Khalid Moore led the Rams with 24 points, shooting 9-for-16 from the field, and he added seven rebounds, while freshman guard
Will Richardson added 16 points. Senior center
Rostyslav Novitskyi also scored in double figures netting 13 points and grabbing three boards while grad student guard
Darius Quisenberry finished with eight points, five assists, and two steals.
The game was close throughout, with the Flyers holding a one-point lead, 59-58, following a Richardson three-pointer with 6:13 remaining.
Dayton then ran off nine straight points to take a 68-58 lead at the 3:38 mark.
Fordham managed to trim the Dayton lead to eight, 70-62, following a Novitskyi put back in the paint with just under two minutes remaining, but four unanswered Dayton points allowed the Flyers to take a 12-point lead,74-62, the biggest lead of the game, with just over a minute left.
Takeaways
• The tie for second in the regular season was the best finish for the Rams as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
• The Rams outscored Dayton, 17-8, in second chance points.
• Fordham entered the game leading the NCAA in wins when trailing at the half (10).
• The Rams also entered the game leading the Atlantic 10, and ranking 16
th in the NCAA in blocks/game (5.0) but did not block a shot today.
• It was only the second game all season that Fordham did not record a blocked shot.
• The Rams grabbed ten offensive rebounds, the 20
th time they record double-figures in offensive boards.
• Fordham fell for just the third time in 17 games this year when committing fewer turnovers than its opponent.
• Dayton was just the third Fordham opponent to shoot over .500 from the field.
• Rams played eleven different players compared to just eight for the Flyers.
• Dayton was picked to win the Atlantic 10 in the preseason poll while the Rams were picked to finish eleventh.
By the Numbers
8 – Lead changes in the game.
9 – Field goals made by
Khalid Moore, tied for the second most in an Atlantic 10 Championship game by a Ram.
9 – Three-point field goals by Fordham, tied for the third most in an Atlantic 10 Championship game by the Rams.
24 – Points by
Khalid Moore, the fourth most in an Atlantic 10 Championship game by a Ram.
25 – Wins by the Rams in 2022-2023, one shy of the school record set by the 1970-1971 squad.
25 – Field goals made by Fordham, tied for the second most in an Atlantic 10 Championship game by a Ram.
48 – Points scored by
Khalid Moore in two Atlantic 10 Championship games this year.
1,029 – Career collegiate points for
Khalid Moore.
2,174 – Career collegiate points for
Darius Quisenberry.
10,156 – Attendance at the Barclays Center, the second largest crowd to see a Fordham men's basketball game this year.
