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WASHINGTON (March 11, 2025) – The Fordham men's basketball team will begin play at the 2025 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship on Wednesday afternoon when it takes on Rhode Island in the opening round.
 
Tip-off from Capital One Arena is set for 2 p.m.  The game will air live on USA Network and 90.7 FM WFUV.
 
Fordham (11-20, 3-15) enters the postseason as the tournament's no. 15 seed and will take on the 10^th seeded Rams of Rhode Island for the third time this season and the second time in a span of just five days.  Rhode Island closed the regular season with an 86-67 win over Fordham in Kingston on Saturday afternoon.  On Feb. 5, Fordham outlasted URI, 80-79, inside the Rose Hill Gym thanks to a last-second putback from Matt Zona.
 
Fordham will look to win at least one game in the Atlantic 10 Tournament for the fourth straight year.  Last season in the opening round at Barclays Center, Fordham erased a 13-point second-half deficit before taking down Davidson in overtime.  The previous season, Fordham's first under the direction of Head Coach Keith Urgo, the Rams earned a double bye into the quarterfinal round before knocking off La Salle and advancing to the semifinals for just the second time in program history.
 
The Rams are led offensively by Jackie Johnson III, who enters the postseason ranked second in the league in scoring at 18.6 points per game.  No Fordham player has averaged more than 18.6 points per contest over the course of a season since Joe Paterno, the program's fourth leading scorer all-time, averaged 20.0 points in 1988-89.  In 31 appearances, 30 of which have been starts, Johnson has connected on 81 3-pointers, good enough for the fourth highest single-season total in Fordham history and the most by a Ram since Jermaine Anderson (89) in 2005-06.  Johnson has attempted 242 triples on the year, just four shy of the program's single-season record held by Andre McClendon (1989-90).
 
Japhet Medor ranks second on the team in scoring with 13.2 points per contest and leads the squad in both assists (4.1 apg) and steals (1.6 spg).  In league play, Medor averaged 4.5 helpers and posted 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, good for fourth and third, respectively, in the conference.
 
Joshua Rivera is the third Ram averaging double figures this season with 10.7 points per game. 
 
Boasting the league's top scoring offense at 78.3 points per game, Rhode Island is led by Sebastian Thomas, the A-10's fourth leading scorer at 17.5 points per outing.  The senior guard is also the league's top distributor at 6.1 assists per contest.
 
Fordham and URI will meet for the 77^th time in the history of the two programs.  Rhode Island holds a 43-33 edge all-time in the series.
 
The winner of Wednesday's Battle of the Rams will play George Washington in the second round on Thursday at 5 p.m.