Pittsburgh, Pa. – The North Park section of Pittsburgh is home to a Gravity Hill where cars appear to roll uphill. At times, the Fordham men's basketball team must have felt as if they were rolling uphill, as the Rams could not seem to get much traction against Duquesne University, falling to the Dukes, 68-59, in an Atlantic 10 game at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 9-11 overall, 3-4 in the Atlantic 10, while Duquesne improves to 11-8 overall, 2-5 in the conference.
The Rams were led by sophomore forward
Elijah Gray, who netted a game-high 19 points and he grabbed eight rebounds, while senior guard
Antrell Charlton added eleven points and four assists for the visitors.
An
Elijah Gray three put the Rams up three, 47-44, with 7:24 remaining but over the next three-plus minutes Fordham could only manage two free throws as Duquesne took a 56-49 lead with 4:15 on the clock.
A minute later a
Joshua Rivera layup pulled the Rams within five, 56-51, but four straight Duquesne points, including a shot clock-beating three with 2:50 left, Duquesne's only three of the day, gave the Dukes a 60-51. The closest the Rams would get from there was 65-58 on a pair of Gray free throws with 1:50 remaining.
The Rams led by one at the break, 28-27, but the Dukes scored the first five points of the second half to take a 32-28 lead 2:40 into the period.
A Gray basket snapped the Fordham scoreless streak but the Dukes built the lead to six, 36-30, at the 14:54 mark before Fordham used a 14-8 spurt to knot the game at 44 on a
Romad Dean layup just before Gray's three gave the Rams their last lead of the day.
Fordham jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead three minutes into the game on baskets from Dean,
Will Richardson, and Gray and led until a 6-0 Duquesne run gave the Dukes a 20-18 advantage with 3:54 left in the first.
Takeaways
• Fordham's leading scorer
Japhet Medor returned to action after missing the past two games with an injury, scoring two points in 15 minutes.
• Over the past four games
Antrell Charlton has dished out 18 assists with only four turnovers.
•
Kyle Rose is averaging 6.9 rpg over the past eight games.
•
Abdou Tsimbila has blocked at least one shot in 18 of his 19 games this year.
• Tsimbila entered the game with 44 blocks, second in the Atlantic 10, and swatted one today.
• It was a sort of homecoming for Fordham's
Jameson O'Toole, who hails from Pittsburgh (his father, Tim, served as a graduate assistant at Fordham from 1987-89 and is currently an assistant coach at Pittsburgh).
• Fordham fell despite outrebounding the Dukes, 44-31.
• The Rams entered the game second in the Atlantic 10 in offensive rebounding (13.4/game), and grabbed 15 in the contest, while Duquesne was third (12.0/game) but was held to just five today.
• The loss snaps a Fordham four-game winning streak with the Dukes and snaps a Fordham three-game Atlantic 10 road winning streak.
• The Rams are 8-5 in Atlantic 10 road games over the past two years, 3-1 this year.
• Jimmy Clark III entered the game as Duquesne's, averaging 15.8 ppg, but was held to three field goals (though he did score six points from the free throw line).
• Duquesne's Dee Dee Grant, the Dukes' leading scorer who entered the game averaging 18.3 ppg, returned to action after missing three games with an injury, scoring seven points in 24 minutes.
By the Numbers
1 – Three-pointer made by Duquesne (on 13 attempts).
2:27 – Time of game.
7 – Ties in the game.
9- Rebounds by
Kyle Rose, tying his career-high, which he set twice this season.
9 – Points by
Romad Dean, a career-high (previous high was eight which he did four times).
15 – Offensive rebounds for the Rams, the 17th double-digit offensive rebounding game for the Rams this year.
128 – Career games for
Kyle Rose, a Fordham record.
140 – Career blocks for
Abdou Tsimbila, seventh all-time for the Rams.
What's Next?
• The Rams continue the 2024 Atlantic 10 season by hosting the University of Richmond Spiders in the historic Rose Hill Gym on Wednesday, January 31, at 7:00 p.m.
• The Spiders lead the all-time series, which started in 1985, 24-8, and have won the past five match-ups, including a 68-58u win last year on February 5 in Richmond as all five Spider starters scored in double figures by Fordham's
Darius Quisenberry led all scorers with 22 points.
• The last Ram win was in 2018-2019, 69-65, in overtime in the Rose Hill Gym on January 3 behind 26 points and 12 rebounds from Joseph Chartouny and 12 points from Ivan Raut.
• The Fordham win snapped a 14-game Richmond winning streak in the all-time series.
