Xavier’s home court advantage is well documented – they are 51-1 against Atlantic 10 opponents in the Cintas Center since 2007. That home court advantage was significant tonight as the Musketeers used a strong second half run, fueled by a near sellout crowd, to finish off Fordham. Mandell Thomas dropped a career high 23 points, but the Rams (6-19, 2-8 A10) fell to Xavier (14-9, 7-3 A10) in Cincinnati, 79-66.
Prior to Sunday’s matchup against #18 Dayton, the Fordham Rams Women’s Basketball program had never beaten a top 25 opponent. The Rams remained winless against nationally ranked opponents with a tough 68-57 loss. Despite only trailing by 3 points at the half, the Maroon and White just didn’t have enough to take the next step in the Atlantic 10.
Tom Pecora tried to change things up by inserting Jermaine Meyers and Ryan Rhoomes into the starting lineup, but it wasn't too effective. The La Salle Explorers jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and never looked back, crushing the Rams 89-53.
The Fordham Rams are getting into the home stretch of their regular season. With less than ten games remaining on the schedule, the Rams must battle to make the Atlantic 10 tournament. On Saturday morning, Mack Rosenberg and I sat down with Rams’ Head Coach Tom Pecora.
Entering Wednesday night’s contest with Saint Louis, Fordham had a respectable home record of 4-3 compared to a dismal 0-11 mark in true road games. Many fans probably hoped the home court advantage would aid the Rams against Saint Louis, but that was not the case. The Billikens demolished Fordham 90-73 in a game that they controlled from start to finish.
It has been 18 years since the Fordham Rams Women’s Basketball program had a winning season. Sunday’s 30-point victory over VCU guaranteed that the Maroon and White will be over .500 for the first time since the 1994-1995 season. Fordham now has five wins in the Atlantic 10, matching the most that any Rams team has ever had in conference play. This is just one of the many reasons why second year coach Stephanie Gaitley is smiling about her team.
Tom Pecora joined me in his weekly Fordham Focus spot on One on One Saturday afternoon. We spoke mainly about the growth of this team in its previous two games, a 4 point loss to St. Joe's and a 3 point win against URI. Pecora agrees that Branden Frazier has used Chris Gaston's absence to his advantage in terms of his growth as leader of the team.
Fordham Athletic Director has been a busy man lately, but on Saturday he joined me on One on One to give his monthly assessment of Fordham Athletics.
Fordham dropped to 6-16 overall after losing to VCU last night in Richmond, 81-65. The pressure defense from VCU's Rams forced Fordham into 22 turnovers, and resulted in 32 points off those turnovers. That's where the game was won for the Atlantic 10's newest member. Fordham got double digit scoring performances from Mandell Thomas (16 points) and Brian Smith (17 points). They shot better than VCU, and won the rebounding battle, but ultimately couldn't hang with VCU.
The Fordham Rams finished their two game home stand with another entertaining game down to the final minute. In the end, they couldn't complete the effort in losing to Saint Joseph's 66-62 at the Rose Hill Gym Wednesday night.
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