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Men's Basketball
Men's basketball falls to Fordham, 81-70
Feb. 9, 2006
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - Jermaine Anderson and Marcus Stout led Fordham to an 81-70 win over St. Bonaventure on Thursday night at the Reilly Center. Stout led all scorers with 32 points and Anderson added 22 to combine for 54 of Fordham's 81 points. The win gave the Rams a sweep of the season series, and kept the Bonnies (6-15) winless in the Atlantic 10 at 0-10. Fordham improved to 11-11 overall and 6-3 in the conference. The first half was a scoring show by Anderson and Stout, who combined for 35 of the Rams' 39 points. Anderson netted 18 while Stout had 17. St. Bonaventure found itself behind early, as Fordham opened the game with an 11-3 run. Freshman guard A.J. Hawkins' four points around a Patrick Lottin three-point play brought the Bonnies within three, 11-8, but the Rams used a 7-0 run to pull ahead, 19-8, with 12:31 left in the first half. St. Bonaventure used a 10-2 run that cut the Fordham lead to 21-18 with 9:45 left. The Rams led 39-33 at intermission. In the second half, the Rams steadily increased their lead behind the strong play of Stout, who scored 15 points in the half. The Bonnies trailed by 12 points, 61-49, with 10:38 left in the game, but slowly chipped away to close the Fordham lead to 66-59 with 4:27 remaining. Over the final minutes of the game, St. Bonaventure was unable to get any closer. "(Fordham) really comes at you with a lot of different options," St. Bonaventure coach Anthony Solomon said. "Their guards are very good playmakers. (Bryant) Dunston is an outstanding player and he contributed despite being in foul trouble. We need to continue to work on team defense."
Particularly frustrating to Solomon and his team was their inability to score on second chance opportunities. The Bonnies grabbed 17 offensive rebounds but only scored 15 points on second chances. Fordham blocked eight Bona shots and multiple Bonnies players missed shots close to the basket.
"Seventeen offensive rebounds is excellent, but we must finish the play if we are going to be successful," Solomon said. "We controlled the backboards (42-32 in all), but some nights statistics just don't mean all that much." Senior guard Wade Dunston led the Bonnies with 13 points, including 3-5 from behind the arc. Sophomore forward Michael Lee scored 12 points and grabbed six boards, while senior guard Ahmad Smith chipped in 11 points. The Bonnies shot 38 percent (28-74) from the field, including 50 percent from three-point range, while Fordham shot 54 percent (30-56) overall from the floor, and 47 percent from behind the arc. The Bonnies will remain at home to host Richmond this Sunday, Feb. 12, at 2:30. |
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