The outcome was what everyone thought it would be, but getting there was not.
Fordham gave No. 11 Butler all it could handle in front of a sold-out crowd at Rose Hill Gymnasium yesterday but ultimately fell short, losing to the Bulldogs 68-63.
“That was a great win,” Butler head coach Brad Stevens said. “It’s easy to say ‘well one team is going to win,’ but winning is hard. [It was] a very tough, physical game.”
At the start it looked as if Butler (21-5, 8-3 Atlantic 10) was going to rout the Rams (6-20, 2-9). The Bulldogs opened with seven straight points before the Rams remembered it was supposed to be a game.
“I was happy with the effort,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said. “We played a very competitive game against an outstanding team.”
In his first game since Jan. 16, Chris Gaston finished with 21 points to lead Fordham.
“I was very happy with Chris coming back,” Pecora said. “We have a senior on the floor, an all-conference player on the floor. He gives us greater depth.”
Butler was fueled by its strong shooting from beyond the arc, primarily from senior guard Rotnei Clarke who drilled four 3-pointers and led all scorers with 22 points. Fordham couldn’t buy a bucket from long range. The Rams finished shooting just 4-of-19 from 3-point range.
The turning point came with the game tied at 35 with 14:37 left to play. Fordham forward Ryan Rhoomes was whistled for an intentional foul when he contested a Kameron Woods dunk that sent the 6-foot-9 sophomore crashing to the floor.
“You foul from behind you have to call like that,” Stevens said. “It wasn’t a dirty play by any means, but it is an intentional foul by the way the rule is written.”
Furious at the call, Pecora was assessed a technical foul and the Bulldogs were in the midst of an 8-0 run that would give them the lead for good.
“I think this rule is very discretionary,” Pecora said. “I got the technical because I wanted one and I wanted to let them know that we were good enough to win that basketball game. I was very upset with that call.”