March 24, 2010 | AP Press

Hofstra coach Tom Pecora has agreed to become the new basketball coach at Fordham. He will be introduced at a news conference Thursday.

Pecora was on Fordham’s campus in the Bronx, N.Y. on Wednesday, a source told ESPN.

Pecora coached Hofstra the last nine seasons, compiling a 155-126 record that included four 20-win seasons and three NIT appearances. He’s a former assistant to Jay Wright.

Hofstra finished 19-15 after a first-round loss in the CBI. However, the Pride won nine of their final 10 regular-season games to give itself a boost into the postseason.

Fordham finished 2-26 last season, 0-16 in the Atlantic 10. Former coach Dereck Whittenburg was fired five games into the season, his seventh at Fordham. Interim coach Jared Grasso finished the season.

Since 1991-92 Fordham has had one season with a record over .500. It joined the Atlantic 10 in 1995, and since then Fordham has an overall record of 134-292.

AP Photo  

March 7, 2009 | AP Press

NEW YORK — Tasheed Carr had 20 points and seven assists to lead Saint Joseph’s to a 71-54 victory over Fordham on Saturday, the Rams’ 10th straight loss.

Garrett Williamson added 11 points for the Hawks (16-14, 9-7 Atlantic-10), while Ahmad Nivins had seven points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots. Saint Joseph’s finished with a 43-28 rebound advantage.

Alberto Estwick had 16 points and Jio Fontan added 15 on 5-for-24 shooting for the Rams (3-25, 1-15).

The Hawks opened the second half with a 10-0 run that gave them a 47-18 lead with 17:42 to play. The lead reached 30 points when Carr’s two free throws with 15:42 to go made it 53-23.

March 4, 2009 | AP Press

PHILADELPHIA — Kimmani Barrett scored 19 points and Rodney Green had 16 as La Salle pulled away in the last 10 minutes and defeated Fordham 79-59.

Ruben Guillandeaux added 13 points for the Explorers (17-12, 8-7 Atlantic 10), who hit on 31 of 62 shots in Wednesday’s game.

Jio Fontan had 23 points and Alberto Estwick 15 for the Rams (3-24, 1-14), who lost their ninth in a row.

The Explorers never trailed in the game, and led by 12 points twice in the second half before Fordham rallied to within 56-52 with 9:11 left in the game.

Barrett then scored 11 points during a 16-2 run, and La Salle built a 72-54 advantage with 3:46 to go.

The Rams kept close in the first half, but La Salle, who hit on 11 of 30 3-point shots in the game, led 37-30 at halftime.

February 28, 2009

Jordan Keyser | A10CollegeHoops

CHARLOTTE, NC - The 49ers dominated the Fordham Rams from buzzer to buzzer, hammering out a 73-55 victory at home.

The game showcased two of the A-10’s premiere point guards in Fordham’s Jio Fontan and Charlotte’s DiJuan Harris, although the duel was rather one-sided. Harris once again dictated the pace for the 49ers and outplayed Fontan on both sides of the ball.

Charlotte (11-17, 5-9 A 10) was led by Harris’ 14 point and 11 assist effort. It was Harris’ 6th points/assists double-double of the season, and the 11th time he reached double-digit assists this year. Harris is the A-10 assist leader, and ranks 4th nationally with 7.1 apg. Fontan came in averaging 15.3 ppg, but managed to net just 9 points and 4 assists.

Harris humbly credited his success to the performance of his teammates.

“You can’t reall focus in on one player when six people score double digits. It really frees everyone up on the court and lets me do my job.”

Among Harris’ 11 assists, he had three alley-oops, which have become a regular occurrence, and almost a staple in the 49ers arsenal. RaShad Coleman caught one such alley-oop with 7 minutes left and threw down a ferocious reverse two-handed jam that put Charlotte up 67-44, and put the hometown crowd into a frenzy.

DiJuan Harris wasn’t as easily as impressed.

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” joked Harris. “We practice that play all the time in practice. He loves throwing down reverses. As soon as the ball left my hands I knew that he was gonna do it.”

Outside of Harris’ stellar performance, Charlotte was led by a very balanced attack, with 6 players scoring in double figures. Among them was crowd favorite Lamont Mack, who had 13 points and 7 boards.

Fordham, (3-23, 1-13 A 10) was led by Mike Moore with 20 points and 7 rebounds, while Alberto Estwick added 12 points on just 4-for-15 shooting.

“Charlotte killed us off turnovers,” said Fordham Head Coach Derrick Whittenburg. “They had something like 25 points off of turnovers, and that’s just not the way you win basketball games. Our margin of error is so slim with our top two scorers out. 16 turnovers? We just can’t afford to do that.”

The win was 49er head coach Bobby Lutz’s 199th victory at Charlotte. In another bit of Charlotte history, DiJuan Harris became just the 3rd player in Charlotte history to have over 200 assists in a season.

Charlotte hosts Richmond Tuesday night in their final home game of the season. Fordham heads to Philadelphia to face La Salle Wednesday night.

February 25, 2009 | AP Press

NEW YORK, NY – Kevin Anderson scored 18 points and David Gonzalvez added 17 to lead Richmond to a 78-68 victory over Fordham on Wednesday night, the Rams’ seventh straight loss.

Justin Harper had 14 points for the Spiders (15-13, 7-6 Atlantic 10).

Mike Moore was 7-of-11 from the field, 9-for-9 from the free throw line and had 25 points for the Rams (3-22, 1-12), while freshman Jio Fontan added 18 points.

Richmond went on 12-4 run to take a 24-15 lead with 9:46 left it half and the Spiders extended the lead to 42-27 on a jumper by Harper with 1:09 to play. Richmond led 42-31 at halftime.

A layup by Gonzalvez gave Richmond its biggest lead of the game, 47-31. Fordham got within nine points six times, the last on a three-point play by Fontan that made it 72-63 with 5:04 to go.

February 21, 2009 | AP Press

NEW YORK, NY – Jimmy Baron scored 19 of his 29 points in the first half and Rhode Island handed Fordham its sixth straight loss, 77-58 on Saturday.

Kahiem Seawright added 19 points for Rhode Island (20-8, 9-4 Atlantic 10) in the matchup of teams nicknamed Rams, while Delroy James had 11 points and nine rebounds.

Mike Moore had 19 of his 28 points in the second half for Fordham (3-21, 1-11), which has lost 14 of its last 15. Freshman Jio Fontan had 19 points for Fordham.

Baron had two of his six 3-pointers in a 10-0 run that have Rhode Island a 16-6 lead with 14:50 left in the first half. Rhode Island’s biggest lead of the half was 39-21 on two free throws by Ben Eaves with 3:44 to go. Rhode Island led 47-23 at halftime.

Baron was 10-for-12 from the field including 6-for-8 on 3s while Rhode Island finished 9-for-17 (52.9 percent) beyond the arc.

Lavoy Allen - Temple Owls (F)  

February 18, 2009 | AP Press

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Lavoy Allen scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds Wednesday as Temple cruised to its fourth straight victory, a 72-45 win over Fordham.

Dionte Christmas also had 14 points while Craig Williams contributed 11 points and Ryan Brooks had 10 for the Owls (16-9, 8-3 Atlantic-10).

Jio Fontan scored 14 points and Jacob Green added 13 for the Rams (3-20, 1-10), who dropped their fifth in a row. Fordham has lost 13 of its last 14 and fell to last place in the 14-team conference.

Temple led 33-22 at halftime and 42-29 with 14:40 remaining before going on a 19-4 run.

Allen scored eight points and Christmas had six during the key spurt, which extended Temple’s lead to 61-33 with 6:15 left.

Allen registered his team-high ninth double-double of the season as the Owls outrebounded Fordham 41-31.

AP Phot

February 14, 2009 | AP Press

CINCINNATI, OH – Brad Redford matched his career high with 15 points, all of them from behind the arc, and 14th-ranked Xavier recovered from back-to-back losses by dominating the second half and beating Fordham 88-53 on Saturday.

Xavier (21-4, 9-2 Atlantic 10) saw its defense slip during consecutive road losses at Duquesne and Dayton, both of whom shot 50 percent from the field. After a ragged start on Saturday, the Musketeers got back into form against the league’s worst-shooting team.

The Musketeers haven’t lost three in a row since early in the 2004-05 season, and were never in trouble against the Rams (3-19, 1-9), who start a pair of freshmen and two sophomores. Fordham has lost four in a row, all by at least 23 points.

Redford led six Xavier players in double figures. Xavier made a season-high 14 3-pointers and had a season high in points. Sophomore guard Mike Moore led Fordham with a career-high 24 points.

In addition to trying to fix his team’s defense the last few days, Xavier coach Sean Miller has been working on his fan support, too.

Miller had a new message for fans played on the videoboard before the game, urging them to be loud. He also had his players walk through the stands — past the student section — before taking the floor for warmups, another new twist.

There was yet one more change at the tip-off: Terrell Holloway was out of the starting lineup. The freshman point guard failed to get an assist in the last two games, and gave way to Dante Jackson in the lineup. Holloway had started the last 13 games, but struggled to take care of the ball.

The student section was louder — it chanted Miller’s name when he got a technical foul for arguing a call — and Holloway passed the ball more often when he got onto the floor. The defense? At the outset, that was another matter.

Fordham made nine of its first 16 shots, keeping it close for the first 12 minutes. At that point, Xavier’s man-to-man defense toughened, and Derrick Brown dunked off a rebound and had a 3-pointer during a 12-2 run that pushed the lead to 36-24.

Redford’s fifth 3-pointer pushed the lead to 68-38 midway through the second half. The freshman shooting guard went 5-of-9 from behind the arc.

Holloway had another subpar game, getting only one of Xavier’s 21 assist and two points.

Xavier played without 7-foot reserve center Kenny Frease, who sat on the bench in his warm-up jacket resting a sprained right ankle. The freshman played only 13 minutes during a loss at Dayton on Wednesday, getting four points and two rebounds despite the injury.

The Musketeers figured they could get by without him. They beat Fordham by 26 points on Jan. 11, and have won 16 of their 17 against the Rams since they joined the league.

February 11, 2009 | AP Press

NEW YORK, NY – Tony Gaffney and Ricky Harris each scored 19 points and Massachusetts routed Fordham 91-68 on Wednesday.

Chris Lowe added 10 points for and a game-high seven assists for the Minutemen (9-13, 4-5 Atlantic 10).

Mike Moore led the Rams (3-18, 1-8) with 21 points. Fordham has lost three straight games, each by at least 23 points. Jio Fontan added 19 points for the Rams, and Jacob Green and Herb Tanner each scored 10.

Gaffney scored Massachusetts’s first five points, leading the Minutemen to a 9-0 lead.

Luke Bonner had a pair of 3-pointers in a 12-0 run that made it 34-13 with 8:46 of the first half. Then UMass ended the half on a 7-0 run to lead 57-28 at the break.

The Minutemen shot 51 percent from the field.

February 7, 2009 | AP Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Damian Hollis scored 19 points and Rob Diggs scored 17 points as George Washington snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 87-62 win over Fordham on Saturday afternoon.

Wynton Witherspoon scored 13 points and Tony Taylor added 10 points for the Colonials (7-13, 1-7 Atlantic 10), who won their first conference game of the season and their first game overall since a Dec. 23 road win over Sacramento State.

Led by 16 points from Hollis, the Colonials scored a season-high 57 first-half points, shooting 63.9 percent (23-36) from the floor, for a commanding 57-24 halftime lead.

In the only meeting between schools this season, the Colonials led by as many as 41 points in the second half and held the Rams to 32.8 percent (20-61) shooting overall.

Jio Fontan scored a game-high 22 points for the Rams (3-17, 1-7), who dropped their second straight game and have lost 10 of 11 overall. Trey Blue scored 18 points and Mike Moore added 15 points.

Diggs passed the 1,000 point mark for his career for the Colonials, who have defeated the Rams in nine of their last 10 meetings.