Last season, Fordham guards Jio Fontan and Alberto Estwick played for a team that went 32-0 and captured the New Jersey state title. In six months, the freshmen have gone from the St. Anthony Friars to the Detroit Lions of the Atlantic 10.
After last night’s 60-40 defeat to Hofstra (5-1) at the Mack Sports Complex in Hempstead, Fordham (0-6) still is searching for its first win.
“I don’t think the confidence is shaken as much as you think,” Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg said. “We’ve lost some games in a row, but I think the kids can bounce back. We’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get over it.
“It’s been tough on all of us. Nobody’s experienced it,” Whittenburg added. “I think it’s going to show our character. We’ve got to get urgent about what we’re doing.”
Hofstra’s sophomore sensation, Charles Jenkins, came into the game as the 11th-leading scorer in the nation with 23.6 points per game, but Fordham suffocated the star with varying defensive schemes and held him to his lowest point total of the season. Nevertheless, Jenkins, a 6-foot-3 guard, kept his composure and became the facilitator of the offense, finishing with 11 points, nine assists and two steals. Sophomore forward Greg Washington added career-highs of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
“I was put in a position where they were trying to take me out of the game, so it was an opportunity for me to get my teammates shots,” Jenkins said.
“We love to play four-on-four,” Hofstra coach Tom Pecora said. “Charles is going to see more of it. They’re going to throw the kitchen sink at him.”
Fordham was led by forward Mike Moore, who finished with 16 points, but the team shot an anemic 15-of-57 (26.3 percent) from the field, making a win about as likely as a colony on the sun. The silver lining for Fordham is it held Hofstra to its lowest point total of the season. Unfortunately, the Rams had their worst offensive game of the season.
“On the road, you have to control the game with your offense,” Whittenburg said. “These are the things we have to continue to learn. We’ve just got to get a little smarter.”
After a tightly contested first half, Jenkins helped stretch a two-point second-half lead, as Hofstra put together a 14-0 second-half run that restored order in Nassau County and effectively ended Fordham’s hopes.
“There where was a point where we went up eight,” Jenkins said. “[Coach] used the terminology, ‘Smell blood.’ We had them in the hole, so we decided to put them away.”
Fordham has suffered double-digit losses in every game but one this season, but early on, it was hard to tell which team was at the top and bottom of their conferences.
Just before tip-off, the Hofstra student section hurled chants of “Oh and Five!” at Fordham players. As if they needed a reminder they were off to their worst start in school history, the Rams showed that the Pride weren’t the only ones who had, well, pride.
Sparked by Fontan, Moore and Brenton Butler, Fordham came out inspired. Despite being manhandled on the glass and having just three first-half scorers, the Rams stayed ahead for most of the first half, but the team allowed a pair of 3-pointers by Cornelius Vines, including one at the buzzer, that gave Hofstra a 27-23 lead at the half.
“It was two different halves. The second half, we obviously played more like I thought we would,” Pecora said. “You play local games like this, they’re going to be tough, hard-fought games. Eventually, we started making some shots and kept them off the glass. I said to our guys, records go out the window when we play these types of games.”
Unfortunately for Fordham, the records don’t stay there.