Fordham Basketball: Will Loss to Duquesne Be a 'Wake-Up Call' for the Rams?

Fordham hasn't won many basketball games this year. But the one thing head coach Tom Pecora has been able to count on has been his team's effort.

In the Rams' 81-66 loss to Duquesne Wednesday night at the Rose Hill Gym, even that was missing.

"I think they just came in and they wanted it more," Pecora said about the Dukes. "That's concerning to me considering how well we'd been playing."

After losing its first nine Atlantic 10 games, Fordham had won four of its last seven.

Wednesday night, it looked like the Rams were poised to notch their fifth conference win. They were ahead 32-20 with five minutes and 13 seconds to go in the first half. Then, it all fell apart. 

Duquesne outscored the Rams 18-3 to close out the half and pulled away after the break. The Dukes shot 49.1 percent from the floor including 45.5 percent from three-point range. Fordham shot 40.9 percent from the floor and just 19.4 percent (6-of-31) from beyond the arc.

The Rams played without their leading scorer, freshman Eric Paschall (16.5 points per game), who injured his ankle in practice on Tuesday.

"Not the way we planned it obviously." Pecora said. "Knowing Eric wasn't going to be able to play today we were going to have to find 17, 18 points from one of the guys who replaced him. That wasn't the case."

"It was a great test for us to see if we could rise to the occasion," he added. "It is what it is. Injuries are part of the game. We just have to find a way to respond and play better."

Even without Paschall, Fordham managed to go up by 12 points in the first half. But the Dukes made a run in the last five minutes before halftime and they controlled the game the rest of the way.

"They raised the intensity closing out the first half," Pecora said. "We didn't respond."

Fordham has lost before—it's 9-19 overall and 4-13 in the A-10—but for the most part the effort has always been there. According to Pecora, that was not the case the past two days.

"We didn't have a good practice yesterday," he said. "Yesterday was a dud. I had to ride them. I guess I was a prophet when I said to them, 'You might have lost this game today.' As much as we were pushing them and pushing them, they were fighting us in practice...to just play all out and do the things we needed them to do."

This was a winnable game for Fordham. It started the night one game behind Duquesne in the conference standings. But in the second half the two teams looked leagues apart.

"It bothers me greatly," Pecora said. "We had an opportunity to jump them in the standings. There was a lot at stake and we didn't play with that sense of urgency...I'll address that."

Against the Dukes, four Rams starters—Bryan Smith (17 points), Ryan Rhoomes (15 points), Christian Sengfelder (15 points) and Mandell Thomas (12 points)—scored in double digits. But the Rams only received seven points from everyone else. 

"These guys have to come in and compete," Pecora said. "Guys who are on the bench always say 'I should be playing more.' Well tonight they got a chance and they didn't respond."

How Fordham responds at practice and in its game at St. Bonaventure will be worth noting just days ahead of next week's A-10 tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

"I think we're in much better shape than we were last year going in with so many losses late in the year," Pecora said about the state of his team going into the tournament. "We'll see how they respond. Maybe this is a wake-up call. Maybe some of these guys will realize how important game prep is, and effort.

"The one thing I've always told all my teams is if I'm coaching effort, especially late in the season, then we're not going to be very good. That should be a given especially this time of year. Effort should be a given."

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