By Pat Costello
After splitting a pair of games at home, the Rams had to travel to Rhode Island last Wednesday. The Rams battled hard the entire game but came up short in the end. Senior Ryan Rhoomes had another stellar game — producing 18 points and 10 rebounds — good enough for his fifth double- double of the year and 12th of his career. The senior went six for 11 from the field and tacked on six foul shots. Senior Mandell Thomas also had a nice game for himself, contributing 13 points and four steals. What really allowed Fordham to stay in the game was the bench play of junior Jon Severe and freshmanDavid Pekarek. Severe netted 12 points in only 24 minutes and Pekarek added 10 of his own.
The game was close through the first 29 minutes, but the Rhode Island Rams went on a couple of runs down the stretch and pulled away. After a couple of Joseph Chartouny foul shots brought the game within three, 53-50, Rhode Island stepped on the gas pedal. They dumped on 13 points to Fordham’s four, pushing their lead to 66-54 with just under 8 and a half minutes remaining. Fordham remained resilient and began to fight back, but failed to overtake Rhode Island. After Fordham pulled within seven, Rhode Island scored 11 of the next 12 points to put the game out of reach. The 79-63 loss was Fordham’s sixth in the Atlantic 10 and eighth on the year. Fordham had not won an away game all season, at that point.
The Rams could not afford to wallow following their most recent loss, as they had to go up to Amherst to take on UMass on Saturday. This game was an absolute nail-biter down to the bitter end. With 19 seconds left on the clock, redshirt sophomore Antwoine Anderson stepped to the line looking to seal the deal. As a 75 percent foul shooter, he is one of the best on the entire roster. After knocking down the first to make the score 63-60, Anderson uncharacteristically missed the second. UMass quickly pushed the ball up the court. UMass guard Trey Davis was on the far side of the court and drove left towards the rim. The Fordham defense collapsed around him, leaving Donte Clark wide open on the left wing. Davis turned around and hit Clark with a perfect pass, who proceeded to hit the game-tying three with nine seconds left. Undaunted by this, Fordham inbounded and quickly got the ball down the court, finding sophmore Nemanja Zarkovic with seven seconds left. When it came off his fingertips the entire building thought the ball was going in, but it rattled out, sending the game to overtime.
It would have been very easy for the Rams to get discouraged, especially after UMass initially took the lead in overtime, but they dug deep and battled hard, eventually coming out victorious. Fordham went 6-8 from the line in the extra period, including a perfect 4-4 from Anderson. The final score was 78-72, pushing the Rams record to 12-8 overall and 3-6 in the A-10. The win also gave Jeff Neubauer his first road victory as the coach of the Rams. They continue A-10 action this week with a home game against the high-powered St. Joe’s Hawks on Saturday. Fordham was defeated in its previous encounter with the Hawks by 25 points and surely will have that memory with them.
