Second-Half Struggles Continue, as Fordham Loses Ninth Straight
Posted by Fordham SportsNet on January 16, 2010
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.”
