La Salle 80, Fordham 73
Posted by Fordham SportsNet on January 28, 2010
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
