The Rose Hill magic that has carried Fordham throughout the season was missing this afternoon. The Rams were unable to hit several open shots, shooting 6-26 from 3-point range (21-68 overall) and dropping a crucial Atlantic 10 game to Charlotte, 69-62.

Fordham and Charlotte entered the game in a three-way tie with Rhode Island for 12th place in the 14-team conference. The top 12 teams qualify for the A-10 tournament, and Charlotte now holds the tiebreaker if the teams finish in a tie at the end of the season.

"We gave up a golden opportunity," Head Coach Tom Pecora said. "[Now] we have to find a win at home against a team that some people probably thought we weren't going to be able to compete against."

Junior forward Chris Gaston led the Rams with 25 points and 14 rebounds, but none of Fordham's outside shooters were able to get in a rhythm. Freshmen guards Bryan Smith and Devon McMillan, sophomore guard Branden Frazier and senior forward Alberto Estwick shot a combined 19 percent from the field (8-42).

"I thought we got some pretty good looks that we didn't knock down, especially early in the game," Pecora said. "Right out of the gate, we got a couple of real good looks that we didn't make, and once again I think it gets in the young guys heads a little bit."

Fordham has struggled offensively all season, shooting 38.4 percent from the field overall (last in the A-10) and 28.8 percent from 3-point range (13th). Pecora, though, still has confidence in his players.

"They had good looks," he said. "They're good shooters. At night they drill them. They're just young and [getting used to] the pace of the game."

The Rams were behind by as much as 11 late in the first half, but they managed to cut the deficit to four going into the break. Fordham then took its first lead with 18:34 left, but the 49ers answered right back with a pair of 3's from junior guard Jamar Briscoe. Charlotte gradually pulled away over the course of the second half as the Rams continued to miss open jump shots.

Junior center Chris Braswell and sophomore forward DeMarlo Mayfield led the offensive charge for the 49ers, contributing a combined 37 points and 26 rebounds. Pecora said he was unhappy with his team's overall effort defensively. Fordham was outrebounded 53-36 for the game, with 18 of Charlotte's rebounds coming on the offensive side of the glass.

"I said ‘look guys, I coached effort today and I haven't had to coach effort in a while,'" Pecora said. "When I coach effort, something's wrong. We've got to be beyond that. We didn't contain the basketball; we allowed them to get some good looks."

One bright spot defensively was senior center Kervin Bristol, who had a career-high eight blocks. His previous high was six earlier this season against Xavier.

"I feed off [the crowd's] energy," Bristol said. "When I get a block and the crowd gets into it, I want to compete more, I want to play more defense to help my team."

The combination of Bristol on defense and Gaston on offense was not enough, however. Fordham drops to 9-13 (2-7 in the A-10) with the loss. The Rams also fell to 8-3 at the Rose Hill Gym this season. Charlotte snapped a six-game conference losing streak to improve to 11-11 (3-6).

The Rams now have a week off before facing Dayton at home next Saturday. Going into today's game against Saint Louis, the Flyers have lost three straight conference games to drop to 15-7 (4-4). Fordham has not beaten Dayton since January of 2006, and the Rams lost by 34 points in last year's meeting.

"Dayton's a good club, they've had some good wins this year," Pecora said. "But once again, they're coming in here. The crowd was great today. I think the crowd kept us in the game [early] and got us back in the game. But then we had a little bit of a lapse when we took the lead."