Fordham Will Get Right Back at It, Still Searching for Its 1st Atlantic 10 Win

Fordham has to catch a break at some point. On Wednesday night, all it needed was a rebound.

Holding a 63-62 lead with nine seconds left in the game, Rhode Island grabbed two offensive rebounds, and Gilvydas Biruta scored at the buzzer to give URI a one-point victory in front of 1,622 stunned fans inside the Rose Hill Gym.

Moments after it ended, Fordham head coach Tom Pecora was still trying to make sense of it all.

"We've lost one just about every way this year," he said at the start of his postgame press conference. "I thought we had that basketball game. Obviously we had a couple great opportunities in the last minute or so of the game. The last play, all we have to do is deflect the ball, knock the ball out...or God forbid somebody grabs it and we walk away with a win."

Rhode Island ended up with the win, its 14th of the season, while Fordham dropped its seventh in a row to fall to 5-13 on the year. The Rams are winless (0-7) in Atlantic 10 play.

"I just told them, 'Nobody's giving you anything,'" Pecora said about the message he delivered to his team after the game. "But here's a team that's [14]-5 and we've played them to one possession twice."

On Jan. 7, Fordham lost at Rhode Island, 68-65. Compared to some of its other A-10 losses, that was an encouraging performance, just like it was when the two teams met again, this time in the Bronx. But ultimately, the final score is what matters.

For Fordham, the results haven't been good since conference play began in early January.

"We have to just find a way," Pecora said. "We have to take wins. No one's going to give us anything. It's that good a league."

The period in between last Thursday's loss to George Washington and the opening tip against Rhode Island was a crucial one for Fordham. Major changes took place, and there's reason to believe that some fixing was done.

For starters, Fordham put in a new flex offense, and the first-half results were encouraging, as the Rams shot 50 percent (13-for-26) from the floor. Facing increased pressure, that number dipped to 32 percent (8-for-25) in the second half.

There was also more production across the board. Jon Severe, who's missed nine games as a result of a suspension, a leave of absence and an injury, scored 17 points in 24 minutes. Ryan Rhoomes, who's had an up-and-down year, had 10 points and 16 rebounds in 39 minutes. Eric Paschall, who only played eight minutes in the first half after picking up his second foul, scored 19 points.

Rhoomes looked like a different player out there—far more assertive—and the results showed. This can't be a one-and-done deal for him. The Rams need his size and presence on both ends of the floor as well as on the glass. Against Rhode Island, Rhoomes showed what he can do.

"He's more than capable to get 10 rebounds a game in the Atlantic 10," Pecora said. "His numbers dropped drastically after we got into A-10 play. But this will bring him back up, and he's got to continue to do this, especially against Dayton on Sunday.

With a young team trying to find its way, there's always the other side to every story. Fordham is well aware of that part of the plot.

[Ryan Rhoomes] and Christian [Sengfelder] had 16 and nine rebounds [respectively]," Pecora said, "but we have to get the backcourt rebounding the ball a little bit more. All the things that we're going to continue to work on as a team."

As for Severe, who's had a rocky season to say the least, he finally got going against Rhode Island. If he plays like he did Wednesday night, the Rams have a chance to win some games. We still haven't seen Severe and Paschall at their best at the same time, which could change the direction of the Rams' season.

"Offensively I thought he did a decent job," Pecora said of Severe, who was on the court two hours prior to the game working on his jump shot and doing a little coaching as well. "He's a rhythm shooter, and if he gets it going he can make a couple big shots for you."

"We need him to score," he added. "When we have scoring coming out of him and coming out of Eric like that and then everybody else can fill in with six, seven, eight, nine, 10 points, we're going to put some numbers on the board."

That hasn't happened consistently enough, but one thing that also didn't happen was actually a positive: Fordham didn't fall behind right out of the gate. To alleviate the bad starts it's been so prone to having, Pecora and his staff changed up the Rams' game-day routine.

"We practiced instead of just having a walk-through, and that's what I'm going to continue to do," Pecora said. "We're practicing game days. We were doing rebounding drills and we were doing a bunch of things today, and we're going to continue to do it."

One thing is for sure: Pecora isn't giving up anytime soon.

"I only know one way," he said. "When things aren't going good, you work harder at it. We just have to continue to work hard. The harder I work the luckier I get, so I'm just going to continue to work really hard.

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello