A first-half Mass-acre proved too much for Fordham to overcome.
Try and they might, the Rams were unable to dig themselves out of a 14-point deficit at the half in a 77-73 loss to the Minutemen at Rose Hill Gym Sunday afternoon.
“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 UMass 40-26 heading into the locker room thanks to a combined 26 first half points from Minutemen Terrell Vinson and Chaz Williams. Fordham’s guard-forward combination of Chris Gaston and 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.”
Gaston and Frazier eventually heated up, but their combined 36 points in the second half were not enough for the Rams. UMass was not shocked in the slightest that Fordham’s top two players made a game out of it and pushed the Minutemen to the brink.
“I was waiting for that little storm to come,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said. “I figured it would get closer before it got further away because those guys are two of the better guys in the league. It didn’t surprise me much.”
“Fordham always plays us tough,” Vinson said. “They have a good solid team and are always going to come at us.”
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 victory hangover may have carried into Sunday’s loss.
“[They were] cocky,” Pecora said. “I think it’s immature. I’ve been telling them one thing has nothing to do with the other, you have to live in the moment, prepare yourself for the next game and 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, but also received key contributions from senior Freddie Riley (11 points) and freshman Trey Davis (12 points).
With Fordham trailing by two with under a minute to play, Davis kicked a pass out to a wide-open Riley, who drilled a trey to extend UMass’ lead to five points. Davis also hit three of his four free throw attempts in the final seconds to ice the game.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Davis said. “I told Chaz, ‘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, a Brooklyn native with friends and family in attendance, was called for the technical after celebrating a made 3-point shot. Williams was also going up against his former coach in Pecora and a close friend in Frazier.
“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.”
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com