BRONX – The Fordham men's basketball squad attempted to do its best impersonation of Saint George, Siegfried from the Nibelungenlied, and Beowulf from Anglo-Saxon literature tonight. That is, be a dragon slayer. Unfortunately for the Rams, senior guard
Jackie Johnson III's potential game-tying shot fell off the rim as time expired and the Drexel University Dragons escaped with a 73-71 win over Fordham in the Rose Hill Gym in a campus game of the 2024 Sunshine Slam.
With the loss, Fordham evens its record at 3-3 on the year while Drexel improves to 4-2.
Johnson led the Rams with 18 points while grad student forward
Abdou Tsimbila, grad student guard
Japhet Medor, and sophomore forward
Jahmere Tripp all finished with ten points with Tsimbila and Medor each adding eight rebounds.
The Rams trailed by seven with 1:22 remaining before a
Will Richardson three made it a four-point game, 73-69, with just over a minute remaining.
Medor forced a Drexel turnover on the inbounds play and the Rams turned that into a pair of Medor free throws with 48 seconds left to make it a 73-71 game.
Medor then rebounded a Drexel miss with 13.9 seconds remaining and the Rams called a time out as they crossed midcourt with ten seconds on the clock.
Fordham inbounded the ball to Johnson who drove to the baseline and got off an off-balanced shot that rebounded off the rim as the final clock sounded.
The Rams opened the game hot, jumping out to a 16-6 lead four minutes into the contest before nine straight Drexel points made it a 16-15 game three minutes later.
Fordham would get the lead back to as many as nine, 33-24, on a Johnson free throw with 5:56 left. The Dragons would whittle away at the lead and eventually took a 35-33 lead with 1:43 remaining in the half before the Rams outscored Drexel 5-1 over the final 1::27 to take a 38-36 lead at the break.
The Rams scored the first five points of the first half to take a 43-36 lead 1:15 into the second but eight straight Drexel points gave the Dragons a 44-43 lead with 15:40 left and neither team led by more than four until Drexel took the 73-66 lead.
Takeaways
•
Jackie Johnson III has scored 114 points over his first six games as a Ram, the second most by a Fordham first-year player (Jon Sever scored 139 in his first six games in 2013).
• Johnson has scored in double figures in all six games this year.
•
Abdou Tsimbila made his first start of the season.
• It was Drexel's first win over Fordham in three tries.
• Drexel's Yame Butler, who played his first semester as a freshman at Fordham, finished with 12 points for the Dragons.
• The Rams are now 26-18 all-time against schools currently in the CAA.
By the Numbers
5 – Assists recorded by
Japhet Medor, a season-high.
8 – Rebounds by
Japhet Medor, a career-high.
9 – Steals recorded by Fordham.
10 – Offensive rebounds by the Rams, the fourth straight game Fordham has recorded double digit offensive rebounds.
40 – Points in the paint for Fordham (compared to 32 for Drexel).
What's Next?
• The Rams will travel to Daytona Beach to continue play in the 2024 Sunshine Slam, facing Penn State on Monday, November 25, at 4:00 p.m. at the Ocean Center.
• It will be the fifth meeting between the Rams and the Nittany Lions on the hardwood, the first since 2014 when Fordham head coach
Keith Urgo served as an assistant for the Nittany Lions.
• Penn State leads the all-time series, 3-1, and have taken the past two matchups.
• The Rams are 33-47 against schools currently in the Big 10 Conference.
