Once Again, It’s the Second Half that Dooms Fordham
Posted by Fordham SportsNet on January 24, 2010
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.”
