Fordham ended a two-game losing streak with a win at home against George Washington this afternoon.
The Rams (9-11, 2-5) beat the Colonials (8-13, 3-4) 63-58 at the Rose Hill Gym , ending a two-game road trip that saw Fordham lose to St. Bonaventure and Richmond by a combined 88 points.
“For us at home, when we’re good, we’re good, when we’re bad, we’re bad,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said. “Step one in this process of what we’re trying to do here is become a winning team at home.”
The Rams played the majority of the first half without their star forward Chris Gaston, who did not start and was limited to only three minutes because he was late to a team meeting.
“Chris is a very good player, he’s got to understand that there’s responsibility with who he is and what he’s supposed to be doing for this team,” Pecora said. “We’re just not going to do business that way.”
Gaston played the entire second half, scoring 14 of his 16 points, including going 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Gaston hit four free throws in the final 52 seconds to give Fordham the lead for good.
“Chris Gaston sinking free-throws for us at the end of the game was huge for us.” Pecora said.
The Rams were able to contain George Washington’s Tony Taylor (17 points), who graduated from Stepinac High School, in the game’s closing minutes thanks to Branden Frazier’s defense.
“We knew Taylor was good, he’s a very fine player. We knew he was going to try and take that game over,” Pecora said. “We moved [Devon McMillan] off him. Dave Duke got in my ear and I said [to make the switch] because of Branden’s length and experience.”
Frazier contested a 3-point shot from Taylor with four seconds left that helped close out the win for the Rams.
“I just thought that I could contain [Taylor]. I knew he was going to pull up for a three,” Frazier said. “I knew I would have to contest it, get up as high as I could and he missed the shot.”
Despite being at home, Pecora said that some of the calls made it feel much like a road game.
Senior center Kervin Bristol (10 points, eight rebounds) fouled out of the game with 4:09 left, but Pecora was happy with the effort he put forth.
“It felt like we were on the road with the barrage of whistles that we got,” Pecora said. “I was kidding with [Kervin] and said ‘play like that every game and foul out, we can live with that.’”
With just under 46 seconds left, the referees ruled a loose ball had hit off of a Fordham player before going out of bounds after it appeared to roll off of the foot of George Washington’s Bryan Bynes.
“Don’t get me started,” Pecora said. “I didn’t see any of us near it, but once again I’ll watch the tape.”
In the days leading up to this afternoon’s game, Pecora had his team watch its upset victory against Harvard from earlier this season.
“I said ‘that’s the level you’re capable of playing at,’” Pecora said. “They saw how fearless they were playing. That’s what we have to get back to.
“There’s no quit in this team,” Pecora said.