Men’s Basketball Drops Two Crucial Conference Games

For most of the season, Fordham has been able to use the Rose Hill Gym to make up for its struggles on the road. Last week, the Rams fell to 1-10 away from the Bronx with a 78-60 defeat at Temple. On Saturday, though, Fordham's magic at Rose Hill ran out, as the team was unable to overcome a poor shooting performance in a crucial 69-62 loss to Charlotte.

Temple was likely to be a difficult opponent no matter where the game was played. The Owls entered Wednesday's matchup with a 15-5 record (4-2 in the A-10), as well as a win over nationally-ranked Duke.

Fordham trailed by only eight at halftime, with freshman guard Bryan Smith scoring 15 of his season-high 23 points before the break to keep the Rams close. The Owls pulled away late, however, shooting 7-9 from 3-point range in the second half and leading by as much as 23 points on their way to the win.

"Temple's a very good team and they're always tough at home," Head Coach Tom Pecora said. "Good night by Bryan Smith, but no one else really brought their ‘A' game, and you're not going to win with one freshman playing well on the road."

Senior guard Ramone Moore and junior guard Khalif Wyatt did most of the damage for Temple. Wyatt controlled the first half, scoring 16 of his 24 points before halftime, while Moore scored 20 of his 25 points after the intermission.

"They're both very good players obviously," Pecora said. "They're shot-makers. It's really tough to contest, and they made some shots with people draped on them. That's why they're a good basketball team, and I think both Moore and Wyatt will get paid to play basketball in the next couple of years."

It was a relatively quiet night for Fordham's upperclassmen players. Junior forward Chris Gaston was held to 14 points and five rebounds, while senior center Kervin Bristol managed just six points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Senior forward Alberto Estwick was held scoreless in 18 minutes.

"Once again our three veterans didn't give us a whole lot on the road," Pecora said. "The burden is on them. I'm on them constantly about it, and that's what veteran leaders need to do."

The Rams are now winless in their last 26 conference road games, with three more games away from Rose Hill this season.

"We're going to get road wins in the conference," Pecora said. "It's just a matter of when guys get committed to do what they need to do. The expression I use all the time is ‘hope is not a game plan.' It's about going out and executing and doing what you need to do, and I'm going to fight with them until we get that done."

After the loss to Temple, Fordham returned home to face Charlotte, which had lost six straight conference games. The Rams were ice cold throughout, shooting 23.1 percent (6-26) from 3-point range and 30.9 percent overall from the field in the loss.

Going into the game, the teams were 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," 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."

Gaston led the Rams with 25 points and 14 rebounds, but none of Fordham's outside shooters were able to get in a rhythm. Smith, freshman guard Devon McMillan, sophomore guard Branden Frazier and 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."

The Rams were behind by as much as 11 late in the first half, but they managed to cut the deficit to four before going into the break. Fordham then took its first lead with 18:34 left, but the 49ers answered right back with a pair of threes 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 out-rebounded 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."

Bristol was the one bright spot defensively with a career-high eight blocks. His previous high was six against Xavier earlier this season.

"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."