Foul trouble plagues Fordham in loss to Tulane

Keith Urgo recognized Fordham's need to prepare better following Rams’ loss to Tulane. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Pete Janny (@pete_janny)

NEW YORK — Fordham was unable to stay out of foul trouble with its lineup of hard-nosed players Sunday. After a hot-shooting first half, and on a day where leading scorer Japhet Medor was shut out, the Rams couldn’t muster enough momentum down the stretch, falling to Tulane by a score of 89-81.

Fordham (4-4) committed a total of 30 personal fouls and sent the Green Wave to the line for 42 attempts, 33 of which came in the second half as the visitors were without leading scorer Kevin Cross, unavailable due to an ankle injury. Overall, Tulane went 32-of-42 from the charity stripe to sink a Fordham team that went ice cold from three in the second half (4-for-21) after making seven of eleven 3-point attempts in the first half.

“We need to do a better job of getting more prepared,” head coach Keith Urgo said after the game. “I feel good that we’ll learn a lot from these. I wish we learned with a win, but that’s part of the process.”

Both teams had seen better stretches than the first couple of minutes of this game, besides the play of Fordham’s Antrell Charlton and Tulane’s Collin Holloway. Charlton contributed the Rams’ opening 10 points, including two threes, to put the home team in front, 10-8, at the 14:27 mark. Luckily for Tulane, it had an even hotter hand, with Holloway manufacturing 16 of the Green Wave’s first 21 points. The points from Holloway were demoralizing enough, but the caliber of shots he hit was another thing. He eclipsed his season average of 12 points less than a quarter of the way into the contest.

Fordham showed a lot of promise in other areas in that first stanza, such as making the open pass and getting different teammates involved. That unselfish spirit was epitomized by Kyle Rose, who flashed a few beautiful bounce passes in the lane and also set up Abdou Tsimbila on a perfectly timed alley-oop. Before the connection with Tsimbila, Rose hit two threes in less than a minute to extend Fordham’s lead to 30-21. He was the Rams’ best option in the first half, and ultimately finished with 11 points, six assists, and three rebounds. Rose’s trio of threes tied a season-high set Monday in a win against Manhattan.

In the second half, Elijah Gray took the scoring and playmaking mantle from Rose and scored all 10 of his points in the final period. Midway through, Gray was the main catalyst in an 8-0 run which saw him hit a three, then work a pick-and-roll with Medor for an easy two. That run cut Tulane's lead to 65-64. However, due to its constant foul trouble, Fordham wasn’t able to coalesce all its offensive pieces at once. Tsimbila picked up two quick fouls in the second half and sat with three for a while, and Rose had four fouls in the second half. Both ultimately fouled out during Tulane’s 19-9 spurt to close the game. Although the whistles refused to stop all night, Urgo wants his team to be more mindful of certain circumstances.

“There were a couple fouls that were undisciplined and we have to do a better job,” Urgo said of his team’s transgressions. ”We have to do better at guarding one on one without fouling.”

Urgo also realized how Fordham’s foundation as a whole was missing once Tsimbila picked up the two quick fouls. In his 24 minutes of tussling and constant teetering on foul danger, Tsimbila still managed to impressive stat line of 13 points and 14 rebounds to earn his second double-double of the year. He fouled out on what looked like a 50-50 call when he challenged a dunk attempt by Jaylen Forbes with Fordham protecting a four-point lead at the 4:31 mark of the second half. Tsimbila may have touched the ball, but the officials felt otherwise. That was a critical call because the ensuing free throws by Forbes facilitated a 10-0 run for Tulane that changed the game for good.

“It’s been three games where he’s picked up some quick fouls, and I don’t know if it’s his size or strength that’s making it happen,” Urgo said about Tsimbila, who the head coach acknowledged was a tough matchup for the defensively challenged Tulane. “Some of them are maturity and understanding the situation.”

Urgo was also hit with a technical with 21 seconds left once the game was out of reach. He was shell-shocked by the 33 free throws Tulane took in the second half alone, and it was not Fordham’s first warning, after Josh Rivera was whistled for a technical for taunting after a dunk earlier in the half.

“Those are some big time refs,” Urgo said of the officiating crew consisting of John Gaffney, Pat Driscoll, and Lee Cassell. “Power 5 referees that have had a lot of experience. They called it how they saw it. I respect all of those guys.”

Tulane made more plays down the stretch, prompting Urgo to credit a battle-tested Green Wave team that plays more of an old-school style of spreading out the scoring and taking high-percentage shots. Compared to Tulane, Urgo knows his team is still working through some hiccups of immaturity and inconsistency. That showed with 11 first-half turnovers and an inability to carry over the three-point shooting into the second half.

“That was the same exact team we played last year minus a guard,” Urgo said. “That’s what happens in college basketball. The older you get, the more experienced you get and the more confident you become. They were not flinching whatsoever and you have to give them a lot of credit.”