Fordham tops La Salle to reach Atlantic 10 semifinals

The loudest, wildest house party New York City has seen in a long time was held in Brooklyn Thursday night.

Its host? Fordham.

Which does not seem inclined to end the festivities any time soon.

The Rams’ remarkable season continued with a 69-61 win over La Salle in the fourth of four Atlantic 10 Conference quarterfinal games at Barclays Center.

“These guys believe they’re [going to] go in and win every game they play no matter who it is,” Rams coach Keith Urgo said. 

Fordham advances to Saturday’s second semifinal, where it will meet second- seed Dayton, which outlasted Saint Joseph’s, 60-54. Top-seeded VCU and No. 4 seed Saint Louis will be in the other semifinal. The Rams routed Davidson, 71-53, in the first game and the Billikens blew out George Mason, 82-54.

Darius Quisenberry led Fordham with 22 points, and Elmont’s Khalid Moore recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 rebounds. 

Purportedly a neutral site game, it only seemed as if Rose Hill Gymnasium was imported to

the glitzy, billion dollar arena on the corners of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. The partisan crowd began roaring for the Rams during warmups and remained in full throat for the entire game.

“[The fans brought] Rose Thrill to Barclays Center,” Quisenberry said. “Nothing like it. Obviously you can see the alumni [came], the whole community and obviously our [student section] did a tremendous job bringing energy the whole game. We fed off of that.” 

Moore sent Fordham into halftime with a 34-23 lead with his two-handed, first-half buzzer beating dunk. Moore blew past Anwar Gill on the wing and threw down a hammer jam over Rokas Jocius.

The key to Fordham’s 11-point halftime lead? Its defense. The Rams limited LaSalle to 31% shooting in the first half (9-for-29). And the program which led the conference with 4.8 blocked shots per game, had six in the first 20 minutes with Rostyslav Novitskyi having five.

Fordham finished the game with 10 blocks, six by  Novitskyi. Abdou Tsimbila had three, and reserve Kyle Rose finished with one.

“Defensive end, man we were flying around,” Urgo said. “We talked about playing the full 40 [minutes] defensively and rebounding the basketball and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

But every time it seemed as if the Rams would put the game away, the Explorers would respond with flurries of their own. Beginning with an 11-2 spurt over a 2:22 span early in the second half to cut the lead to 36-34. 

Enter Moore and Quisenberry.

Moore drilled a three-pointer and hit two free throws and Quisenberry converted two layups over a span of 4:28 to extend the lead to 45-34.

Moore (who was named to the All-Atlantic 10 third team) and Quisenberry (an All-Atlantic 10 second team selection) totaled 30 of Fordham’s 35 second-half points. The other Rams to score in the second half? Will Richardson (10 points) whose three-pointer with 5:12 left extended the advantage to 56-48, and Abdou Tsimbila, who knocked down two free throws in the final seconds.   

“It’s just part of the game; how the game goes sometimes,” Quisenberry said. “We [were] feeling it. …It was a collective effort but we definitely finished at the end.” 

After Quisenberry’s Jalen Brunson-like floater with 2:45 left extended the lead to 61-53, layups by Fousseyni Drame and Jhamir Brickus allowed LaSalle to close to within four, 61-57.  

“Those kids didn’t stop,” Urgo said of La Salle. “We knew they wouldn’t stop. They’re [going to] play for [40] minutes.”