Rhode Island Starters
Thomas, House, Lawrence, Green, Brown
Fordham Starters
Medor, Dean, Tripp, Johnson III, Tsimbila
How it Happened
No. 15 Fordham (11-21) jumped in front early and never let No. 10 Rhode Island back in the game, ending URI's season with an 88-71 defeat in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Championship Wednesday afternoon.
The guard tandem of Japhet Medor and Jackie Johnson III combined for 35 points in the opening half. Their play was the primary reason Fordham led by as many as 22 points less than 15 minutes into the game. Medor had 19 points – including going 9-for-9 at the free throw line – and Johnson added 16 points as Fordham stayed in front for the majority of the half.
Trailing 38-16, Rhody (18-13) did manage to cut the deficit by 10 points before the break.
David Fuchs scored seven points and
Jaden House had five over the final 6:30 to help URI get within 49-37 at the break.
Rhody looked poised for a rally when
Quentin Diboundje got a steal and fastbreak dunk to kickstart a 6-0 run that pulled URI within six at 56-50. However, a Medor 3-pointer followed by a Johnson jumper pushed the Fordham lead back to double-digits, where it stayed for much of the remaining time.
Fordham advanced to face No. 7 George Washington Thursday at 5 p.m.
Inside the Box Score
- Guard Jaden House led Rhode Island with 19 points. He finished his career with 1,809 career points.
- House also had six rebounds and three assists.
- Forward David Fuchs had 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
- Guard Quentin Diboundje added 12 points, seven rebounds and two steals off the bench.
- Point guard Sebastian Thomas had 10 points, four assists, four steals and three rebounds.
- With his first steal of the game, Thomas became just the sixth Rhode Island player to record 60 or more in a season. He joined Tom Garrick (88 in 1987-88); Fatts Russell (86 in 2019-20); Stanford Robinson (69 in 2017-18); Jeff Kent (63 in 1991-92) and Keith Cothran (61 in 2009-10) on the list.
- Rhode Island's bench had 31 points.
