Men’s Basketball Falls at VCU

Richmond, Va. – It's a chemical compound that most people learn at a very early age. Combine two molecules of hydrogen with one of oxygen and you get H₂0. It's necessary for life and for fans to attend tonight's Fordham-VCU basketball game. But not for the game itself as Fordham and VCU squared off tonight in an empty Siegel Center as the city of Richmond is dealing with a water outage caused by a winter storm that came through the River City on Monday. Unfortunately the visiting Rams also came up dry as the home squad defeated Fordham, 73-61, in an Atlantic 10 contest.
 
With the loss, Fordham evens its overall record at 8-8, 0-3 in the Atlantic 10, while VCU improves to 12-4 overall, 2-1 in the conference.
 
Grad student guard Japhet Medor led Fordham with 19 points, and he added six rebounds and four assists, while grad student forward Matt Zona netted 14 points to go with four rebounds.
 
VCU led by one at the break, 24-23, and opened the second half with eight straight points to take a 32-23 lead 1:43 into the half.
 
VCU led by eight, 36-28, just over two minutes later when Fordham used a 7-2 spurt to cut the deficit to three, 38-35, following a Zach Riley steal and layup with 13:08 left.
 
The game was a four-point affair, 46-42, in favor of VCU two minutes later when VCU went on a 14-2 run to take a 60-44 lead on an Alphonzo Billups layup with 7:04 on the clock.
 
But Fordham wouldn't go away, getting the VCU lead down to seven twice over the final two minutes, the last time at 68-61 on a Joshua Rivers basket in the paint with just over a minute remaining but Fordham could no closer as VCU scored the final five points of the game.
 
Fordham took an early 2-0 lead on a Johnson pull up jumper 38 seconds into the contest before VCU ran off seven straight points to take a 7-2 lead three minutes later.
 
A Matt Zona layup and Japhet Medor three over the next 1:30 knotted the game at seven and neither team would hold more than a four-point lead the rest of the half.
 
VCU took the four-point lead, 17-13, on a Zeb Jackson jumper with 8:33 remaining but Johnson answered for Fordham with a basket followed by one from Joshua Rivera as the visiting Rams took an 18-17 lead about two minutes later and Fordham would get the lead to three, 22-19, on a Zona layup with 2:47 left in the half.
 
VCU closed out the half with a 5-1 run to take a 24-23 lead at the break.
 
Takeaways
• Matt Zona's 14 points was one shy of his career-high set against UAlbany last month.
 
• The 19 points from Japhet Medor was four shy of his season-high.
 
• Senior guard Zach Riley made his second career start, both coming this year.
 
• Senior guard Jackie Johnson III finished with eight points, breaking a streak of 15 consecutive games to start the season scoring in double figures.
 
• Recent Fordham signee Troy Henderson, a Chester, Va., native who plays at John Marshall High School, attended shoot around today and was planning on attending the game before the decision not to allow fans into the game was made.
 
• Freshman center Jaden Smith missed his third straight game due to injury.
 
• Fordham will remain on the road, traveling to Charlotte after the game
 
• Fordham has dropped its last 17 games in the River City.
 
• The Fordham managers defeated the VCU managers, 74-67, in a game played on Tuesday night.
 
• VCU entered the game second in the A-10 in three-pointers made/game (9.5) but were held to five tonight.
 
By the Numbers
3 – Steals by Zach Riley, matching his career-high set against Manhattan last year.
 
9 – Lead changes in the game.
 
10 – Steals by Fordham, the fifth double digit steals game this year for the Rams.
 
19.2.% - VCU's three-point field goal percentage (5-26), the lowest shooting percentage for a Fordham opponent this year.
 
23 - VCU offensive rebounds, the most for a Fordham opponent this year, which was converted into 25 second chance points.
 
28 – Bench points for Fordham, led by the 14 from Zona and eight from Joshua Rivera.
 
599 - Career rebounds at Fordham for Abdou Tsimbila, who had four tonight, 21st on the Rams' career list.
 
What's Next?
• The Rams continue their 2024-25 Atlantic 10 season by traveling to Davidson, N.C., to face the Davidson College Wildcats on Saturday, January 11, at 2:00 p.m. at the Belk Arena.
 
• It will be the 21st meeting between Fordham and Davidson on the hardwood.
 
• The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 16-4.
 
• Davidson took both of last year's regular season meetings, 79-69, in the Rose Hill Gym on January 17 behind 24 points from both Grant Huffman and Reed Bailey, and 68-53 on February 20 in Belk Arena behind 21 points from Connor Kochera and 19 from Bailey.
 
• Fordham took the third meeting, 71-63 in overtime in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship as Will Richardson netted 20 points and Josh Rivera added 14 for the Rams.