Fordham SportsNet

Chris Gaston had 32 points and 12 rebounds in Saturday's loss to Charlotte. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

For most of the afternoon on Saturday, the Rose Hill Gym was at its best. The home team was ahead - on the verge of pulling off a major upset - and the place was alive. That’s how it remained inside the oldest gym in college basketball until the final horn sounded. By that point, however, as players, coaches, and fans left the arena, Fordham had blown a 10-point second half lead, fell to the Charlotte 49ers, 77-72, and dropped to 2-19 on the year, 0-9 in conference play.

Fordham led 30-29 at the half, and avoided a second-half collapse by hitting key baskets and playing solid defense. Despite big shots down the stretch from Chris Gaston and Brenton Butler, it was the defense that got Jared Grasso’s attention.

“I’m huge on scouting,” Fordham’s head coach said. “With a week to prepare I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be able to defend. Right now a lot of the stuff we do defensively is based on scouting. Taking over midyear, it’s hard to put in all the defensive schemes and the way you want to defend. It’s hard to instill that when it’s three days [then] game, three days [then] game. You’re doing everything off scouting. With a week like this to prepare I felt we had everything in place. We knew everything they ran. We were able to put our guys in the right positions.”

Except at the end, when the Rams blew a 10-point lead with 6:59 remaining. The 49ers would go ahead with 2:51 to play, and though Fordham would tie it, the Rams never led again. Charlotte had a 75-72 lead with 16 seconds remaining, and Fordham was unable to convert on a 3-pointer coming out of a timeout.

“We played hard,” Grasso said. ”It’s one of those games where we had them on the ropes. We were right there with the ball down three.”

For Grasso, it’s another step in the right direction for the program. 

“We grew up today,” he said. “We had the best team in the league on the ropes. That’s with five freshman playing major minutes. I’m proud of our guys because of our effort. There’s wins out there for us and we proved we can compete.”

For the Rams, Chris Gaston had 32 points and 12 rebounds, while Brenton Butler scored 15 points. Derrio Green led Charlotte with 24 points, and Shamari Spears had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Fordham dropped to 2-17 on the year, 0-7 in the Atlantic 10, with an 80-73 loss to La Salle last night at the Rose Hill Gym.

The Rams kept it close right to the end, with a chance to tie the game on an Alberto Estwick 3-pointer with under a minute to play. But Estwick missed that shot and from there the Explorers held on to improve to 11-9, 3-3 in conference play.

From Joe DiBari’s game recap:

The game featured a match-up of two of the top freshmen in the Atlantic 10: Fordham’s Chris Gaston and La Salle’s Aaric Murray. Murray won the scoring battle, 24-21, but Gaston was better on the boards, 15-7, despite being limited to 31 minutes due to foul trouble. The double-double is the second straight and the 12th of the season for Gaston, the second most for an Atlantic 10 player this year.

“Aaric Murray is probably the best player I’ve seen in the Atlantic 10 since I’ve been here,” said Fordham head coach Jared Grasso. “But it came down to us not making our shots while La Salle did.”

La Salle entered the game leading the Atlantic 10 in rebounding margin, outrebounding opponents by an average of 6.2 rpg, but the Rams won the battle of the boards tonight, outrebounding the Explorers, 34-33, thanks to 15 boards from Gaston(21 points). It marked the fifth time in the seven conference games this year that Fordham outrebounded its opponent.

As has been the case for six of the past seven games, the Rams played a solid first half, leading by three at the break, 38-35, but their opponent came out and opened a second half lead before going on to a win.

“I was happy with the way we responded to their run in the second half,” Grasso said. “The guys competed hard all game and were right there at the end. This team is going to be good as long as they keep working hard.”

Read the entire article here.

Charles Costello

The shots didn't fall for Brenton Butler, or the Rams, in Saturday's loss to Temple. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

True to form, this one played out like so many others have.

Facing No. 16 Temple (17-3, 5-0) at the Rose Hill Gym Saturday afternoon, Fordham (2-16, 0-6) kept pace with the Owls through the first half, but then things started to slip away in the game’s final twenty minutes as Temple cruised to a 62-45 win over the Rams in front of 2,690 in the Bronx.

Despite shooting just 26.9 percent from the floor in the first half, Fordham trailed by only three, 22-19, heading into intermission, thanks to a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Danny Thompson. Having worked exclusively on defense and rebounding in the two practices leading up to this game, Fordham held Temple to 28 percent shooting in the first half, and matched the Owls in rebounds at 18 apiece (For the game, the Rams outrebounded the Owls, 31-30).

But it wasn’t enough as Temple caught fire in the second half and the Rams fell behind big. At one point, they trailed 54-31 as Temple outscored Fordham, 32 to 12, through the first fourteen minutes and forty seconds of the second half.

“Temple showed why they’re the 16th ranked team in the country and we showed how young we are,” Fordham head coach Jared Grasso said. “The last two days we really talked about defending and competing and we did that. We really defended in the first half. We tried to slow the pace a little bit to turn the game into as much of a grind as possible. The first half was perfect for us. The game was ugly. Neither team could make a shot. That was kind of the way we wanted to play. We wanted it to be a physical game. We wanted it to be a grind. The second half they stepped up and made some shots and we didn’t respond. Our kids never quit. We continued to play hard. But they have more guns than us right now so we need to continue to get better.”

Chris Gaston led the Rams with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his eleventh double-double of the season. Brenton Butler had nine points but shot just 3-of-13 from the floor.

Again, the Rams were unable to find a third scorer, but it may not have mattered as Butler was cold and Temple got hot in the second half.  Juan Fernandez led the Owls with 13 points and Scootie Randall added 12 points. Micheal Eric and Ryan Brooks had nine points apiece as Temple shot 66.7 percent (16-of-24) from the floor in the second half.

“I give a lot of credit to Fordham today,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “They established the tempo. They knew what they wanted to get accomplished and they did a good job. They made some tough shots when they had to, but we got that separation that gave us a chance to win the game.”

This one wasn’t close.

After battling hard only to come up short in its first four Atlantic 10 contests, Fordham simply didn’t have it Wednesday night, as the Rams fell behind early and often against Saint Louis, dropping to 2-15 on the year with a 75-48 loss to the Billikens.

Saint Louis has the second ranked defense in the league, though their issue has been scoring. Against the Rams, that wasn’t a problem. They jumped ahead early with an 11-2 lead, had a 17-6 lead with 12:39 remaining in the first half, increased the lead to 34-18 thanks to a 10-0 run with 3:53 left, and took a 42-24 lead into halftime.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Billikens outscored Fordham 12-1 to start the second half to take a 54-25 lead. From there, Saint Louis cruised to its 12th win of the year.

Lance Brown led the Rams with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Chris Gaston finished with ten points and eight rebounds.

Charles Costello

Fahro Alihodzic is part of Fordham's youth movement. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO 

At 29, Jared Grasso is the youngest head coach in Division I college basketball. You may have already known that. But did you know that Fordham’s freshmen have logged more minutes (Grasso says they average approximately 120 out of a possible 200 minutes per game) this year than freshmen at any other program in the country? The result is a total movement toward youth at Rose Hill.

“We have a ways to go and a lot of it has to do with our youth,” Grasso said after Saturday’s loss to Rhode Island dropped the Rams to 2-14, 0-4 in the Atlantic 10. “It’s not going to happen overnight. They’re freshman. They don’t realize how much it takes and how hard they need to play for 40 minutes to win. We’re just going to keep working hard and keep getting better.” 

Fordham is winless in its first four conference games. Each game has seemingly followed the same script: the game is close in the first half, the Rams have the game tied or find themselves ahead in the second half, then suffer through a scoring drought to fall behind, eventually mount a comeback, only to fall short each time.

“I’m not a big moral victory guy,” Grasso said. “I’m proud of our guys because they keep playing hard and working hard. We’re going to eventually be good. Our freshmen play more minutes than any other Division 1 program in the country right now. At some point, when these guys are juniors and seniors, we’re going to be good, and I think it will be sooner than that. We’re going to win some games. I still think we’ll end up being pretty good this year. We just need to grow up tomorrow. I don’t know if they’re going to grow up tomorrow but I have to keep pushing them and we have to keep fighting to get better.” 

Youth aside, it’s clear that Grasso has high expectations, and has set high standards, for his players.

“I’m going to be honest with them about what I think of them,” Grasso said. “When they’re good I’m going to tell them they’re good, and when they’re not I’m going to tell them they’re not. 

Following Saturday’s loss, Fordham’s ninth in a row, Grasso was quick to put his finger on what’s been plaguing his team for some time. 

“The biggest thing is toughness,” he said. “Toughness isn’t beating someone up or hitting someone. Toughness is when you’re pressured being able to make a pass. When the team makes a run being able to get a stop. When things get tough our guys have to find a way to fight through it.” 

The Rams have not yet been able to do that. Grasso is confident that, with time and experience, that will change. For this reason, he’s excited about this group’s potential.

“I like these guys,” Grasso said. “I know we’re going to be good. I promise you [that] at some point we’re going to be good with these young kids. Four years ago Dayton was below .500 and won six A-10 games, La Salle was 10-20 and won four A-10 games, and Richmond was 8-22 and won three A-10 games. Now they’re upperclassmen and those three teams were picked in the top four in the league. There’s a lot to be said [about] having upperclassmen.”

Fordham's Rayner Moquete drives toward the basket during this afternoon's loss to Rhode Island. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

One Rams’ team is experienced. The other Rams’ team is not. Though you never know in college basketball, on this Saturday at the Rose Hill Gym, it was the experienced squad from Rhode Island that overcome a feisty Fordham bunch that has now put a scare into its first four Atlantic 10 opponents. However, for the fourth straight conference game, Fordham fell out of sync in the second half, and today, in front of 2,354 in the Bronx, Fordham dropped its ninth straight with a 85-67 loss to Rhode Island.

Though you would never know by the final score, the game was tied at 44-44 after a Chris Gaston layup with 16:54 to go. But Rhode Island (14-2, 2-1) would go on a 32-4 run over the span of about eight and a half minutes to put the game away. Fordham (2-14, 0-4) showed fight the rest of the way, but by that point Rhode Island already had the game wrapped up.

“The first time we struggled with their pressure was during that stretch,” Fordham head coach Jared Grasso said. ”Part of the thing that hurts us in the second half is our defense isn’t in front of our bench any more. I feel more comfortable coaching our defense and putting guys in spots when they’re in front of our bench. I feel like I can give them energy defensively when they’re right there. When we end up down at the other end, I feel like our defensive energy isn’t there.

“It’s hard when we have scoring droughts and teams go on runs, we really need a third scorer to step up,” Grasso continued. ”Chris Gaston and Brenton Butler give everything they have, but we really need a third guy to step up and score. We haven’t found that guy yet.”

The final score overshadows just how close this game was up until the point of Rhode Island’s run. Fordham trailed 40-36 at the break, after a first half filled with lead changes, transition baskets, and solid offensive execution. Fordham was able to break Rhode Island’s pressure in the first half. In fact, Grasso said afterward that his team didn’t turn the ball over once in the first half against Rhode Island’s pressure. The second half was a different story.

“Obviously we were good for about 25 minutes, similar to the Dayton game,” Grasso said. “Our young guys have to get better and have to learn how hard they have to play for 40 minutes in order to win at this level… When we have basketball adversity we’re not good at finding a way to get out of it. We have to get tougher and we have to find a way to fight through adversity.”

Chris Gaston recorded his tenth double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 29 points and grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds. Brenton Butler added 19 points, while Fahro Alihodzic had 10 rebounds. For URI, Keith Cothran scored 26 points and Lamonte Ulmer added 24 points.

“We knew this was going to be a hard-fought game,” Rhode Island head coach Jim Baron said. “I thought it was two different halves. I thought we did a great job sharing the basketball and playing defense in the second half. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task. This was a good win for us.”

Brenton Butler (fordhamsports.com)

According to the polls, the Dayton Flyers are worthy of Top 25 consideration. At 13-3, 2-0 in conference play, Dayton, the Atlantic 10’s pre-season favorite, has gotten off to a good start in a season that started with all sorts of high expectations.

On Wednesday night, the Flyers met Fordham under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, in a game that got underway after 9:30, following St. John’s impressive win over Cincinnati.

For the third time in three conference games, the Rams battled and kept things close, taking a lead on Dayton early in the second half. But the Flyers, with all their talent and experience, got things going down the stretch to cruise to a 74-58 win in Fordham’s only scheduled game this year at the Garden.

“I thought the kids played hard again, but Dayton was able to constantly bring in fresh players from the bench,” Fordham head coach Jared Grasso said, as reported by fordhamsports.com. “I’m proud of our effort, but we have to be 40 minutes good, not 25 or 30.”

Ten players for Dayton played double-figure minutes, while Fordham (2-13, 0-3) relied mostly on Brenton Butler (20 points), Alberto Estwick (10 points), and Chris Gaston (10 points, six rebounds) to compete with the Flyers.

The Rams trailed by five at the half, 31-26, but went on a 10-2 run to take a 36-35 lead with 17:48 left in the game. The game was tied at 38-38 before the Fordham offense began to struggle, and the Flyers took off from there.

Charles Costello