Fordham was unable to stop one Musketeer, let alone three, falling 67-59 to Xavier.
The Rams (7-8, 0-2) were unable to keep up with the Musketeers (10-5, 1-1), including junior guard Mark Lyons, who led the team with 20 points.
“We don’t have to talk about how good Xavier is,” Fordham Head Coach Tom Pecora said. “They’re a very, very good, very, very talented basketball team. Veterans took the game over, Lyons was tremendous.”
Lyons, who was recruited by Xavier from Brewster Academy in New York, dominated the game in front of his home crowd.
“I definitely enjoy playing in front of my family and friends,” Lyons said. “My game is going to stay the same, I’m going to execute the gameplan that coach asks for us. [Playing in New York] doesn’t make e do anything extra, but it’s fun to play in front of them.”
Fordham’s defense was able to hold Xavier’s leading scorer, senior guard Tu Holloway, to zero points in 31 minutes of play, but he still wreaked havoc on the court.
“[Holloway] still had a major impact on the game just by being on the floor and getting the ball where it needs to be,” Pecora said. “I think he did a good job of not forcing things and not trying to do things just because he hadn’t scored much.”
Fordham tried several times to mount a comeback, but it was simply unable to sustain a high-level of play for very long against Xavier. The Rams went on a 7-1 run in the last 2:40 seconds of the first half to close the gap to 30-35 heading into the locker room.
Xavier built a 16-point lead with 9:37 left in the second half, but Fordham’s Branden Frazier (season-high 22 points) helped lead the team on a 10-1 run that fell just short of bringing the Rams back.
“There’s no quit in us, and that’s great, but I’m not about coming close, I’m about winning games,” Pecora said. “So are these young guys [Frazier and Bryan Smith] who I recruited.”
Frazier was depended upon with Xavier shutting down junior forward Chris Gaston (10 points, seven rebounds), who had his streak of consecutive games with double-doubles snapped at seven.
“Getting the ball to Chris Gaston was a little more difficult,” Pecora said. “They did a great job on Chris. They just were physical; they doubled him on almost every touch. Obviously he was the focal point of everything they did defensively.”
Frazier, a sophomore guard from Brooklyn, came within two points of tying his career high of 24 points (11/23/10 vs Long Island).
“I feel like Coach comes at me and he’s making me more of a leader,” Frazier said. “Now that I’m a sophomore, he calls me a vet now. I feel like on the court I’m in control more. I knew I would have to step up this season.”
Xavier and Fordham went into the game coming from two very different perspectives. Xavier, who was involved in a brawl with the Cincinnati Bearcats on Dec. 10, came into Rose Hill Gym having lost two straight and five of six.
Fordham was coming off of wins in three of their last four contests, including an upset of No. 22 Harvard at home. The loss to Xavier is the Rams’ second straight, both in A-10 play.
“We’re a long way from these guys having their heads down,” Pecora said “We’re going to come into practice and work our tails off and they won’t have time to feel sorry for themselves, or they’ll be too tired to feel sorry for themselves. I’m not worried at all about that.”
For the Musketeers, the win against Fordham is something that the team can build upon as A-10 play continues.
“[Getting a win] felt good, we needed that,” Lyons said. “We had been struggling a little bit defensively, I feel like this afternoon we stepped up our toughness and we were aggressive on the ball. We hadn’t been being us, we were worrying about the media. Now we’re going back to our old ways.”
Fordham hasn’t beaten Xavier since Jan. 16, 2005. The game had a total of 41 personal fouls and two technicals were handed out to Fordham’s Lamount Samuel and Xavier’s Lyons, but there was never any fear of a blow-up between the two schools.
“It was a very intense game. I felt like both teams handled it well,” Frazier said.