On the Verge of an Upset, Fordham Can’t Hold On
Posted by Fordham SportsNet on February 7, 2010
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.
