A first-half Mass-acre proved too much for Fordham to overcome.
Try as they might, the Rams were unable to dig themselves out of a 14-point hole at the break and lost 77-73 to Massachusetts at Rose Hill Gym yesterday.
“I was very disappointed in the way we came out,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said. “We dug ourselves a hole that was a little too big. A lesson learned.”
Fordham trailed 40-26 heading into the locker room thanks to a combined 26 first-half points from UMass’ Terrell Vinson and Chaz Williams. Fordham’s inside-outside combination of senior forward Chris Gaston and junior guard Branden Frazier scored just five points on 2-of-17 shooting in the game’s first 20 minutes.
“[Frazier and Gaston] can’t let us down like they did in the first half,” Pecora said. “To go out and play the way we did in the first half, it was disrespectful to the game of basketball and what we’ve been working toward.”
The Rams (5-12, 1-1) were coming off of an 82-75 home win against Duquesne, their first opening win in Atlantic 10 play since 2005, and the hangover may have carried into yesterday’s loss.
“[They were] cocky,” Pecora said. “I think it’s immature. … I put it on [Gaston and Frazier] because they’re the veterans. We have some growing up to do.”
The Minutemen (11-4, 1-1) needed every bit of their halftime lead to hang on.
With Fordham trailing by two with under a minute to play, freshman Trey Davis kicked a pass out to a wide-open Freddie Riley, who drilled a trey to extend UMass’ lead to five points. Davis also hit three of four free-throw attempts in the final seconds to ice the game.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Davis said. “I told Chaz [Williams], ‘I’ve got your back’ and I was just going to do what I do.”
UMass also got an assist from Fordham’s inability to convert at the charity stripe, including surprising misses from Frazier (21 points), the team’s best free-throw shooter, after Williams was whistled for a technical foul in the second half.
“When you miss 12 free throws [it hurts the team],” Pecora said. “Branden Frazier never misses free throws. He was 8-for-12, Chris was 4-for-6.”
Williams, the Minutemen’s 5-foot-9 (that’s generous) sparkplug, played for Pecora during the 2009-10 season at Hofstra before transferring. The Brooklyn native was called for a technical after celebrating a made 3-pointer.
“Emotions took over in the moment of the game,” Williams said. “Branden was talking smack all day, and I just wanted to let him know how I felt. It was pretty dumb on my behalf, and I told the coaches I was going to run stairs.”