[spongyfungy]

vs

Fordham (16-15)- Xavier (19-10)

U.S. Bank Arena (Cincinnati, OH)

Xavier, which struggled down the stretch after leading scorer Brian Thornton broke his ankle and forward Justin Doellman broke two bones in his shooting hand, pulled off the second-biggest upset of the day.

Josh Duncan broke a tie with a pair of free throws, and Stanley Burrell added three more down the stretch for a 59-55 victory over No. 2 Charlotte. Doellman had 14 points to lead Xavier (19-10), which is playing the tournament at a downtown arena about 20 minutes from campus.

The Musketeers will play a Fordham team on its best roll of the season. Bryant Dunston scored 19 points in a balanced attack that beat La Salle 64-62 in the last quarterfinal of the day. Fordham (16-15) extended its winning streak to four games, matching its season high.

Four straight wins on the heels of four straight losses on the heels of four consecutive wins. That's what Dereck Whittenburg deals with as the head coach of a Fordham University basketball team that leans heavily on underclass talent, in-cluding four sophomore starters.

Fordham's youth has the Rams playing in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament for the first time, tonight at U.S. Bank Arena against Xavier.

The Rams beat third-seeded La Salle in Thursday night's final quarterfinal matchup, 64-62. Underclassmen, led by forward Bryant Dunston's 19 points, accounted for 56 of the Rams' points and it was the youngsters that helped Fordham hold off a late La Salle rally. La Salle never led in the game, trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half and was still down by 12 points with 7:13 left to play before twice pulling to within one point, including 63-62 with 20 seconds left.

The winner of the semifinal between No. 6 Fordham (16-15) and No. 10 Xavier (19-10) keeps hope alive of earning the A-10's automatic NCAA berth.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs....603100328/1020

previous meeting:
Fordham def Xavier 84-64

Vbookie Event : Atlantic-10 : Fordham vs Xavier (-6.5) 3/10

[marcusmv3]

37-33, X at the half. Sounded to me like FU surprised some of the Cincy crowd with that half.

[Blue Dog]

Congrats on a good game and a great job in the tourney Rams. I was starting to wonder if your guys were ever going to miss from 3. Lots of fun calls from the refs as usual, but X played hard, Duncan had a breakout game, Caudle gave us some crucial momentum and now it's on to the finals.

Jermaine Anderson is a stud. I'd take him to war with me anytime. I think the future looks bright on Rose Hill, even with him moving on. Dunston, Binns, Greene.... lots of good pieces coming back.

[JoltinJoe]

Thanks BlueDog. Congratulations and good look to both our Jesuit brethern tonight. It's hard to choose between two such classy programs. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I'd love the loser to get an at-large.

[JoDete93]

The refs did make some bad calls, some even worse non-call, but that did not decide the game. Xavier was the better team and the Rams did not have enough to pull off the upset. It is funny calling it an upset since we were wearing white, but we were the underdogs.

Fordham loses a lot in Jermaine Anderson, but I think we have the pieces in place to replace his points by committee.

Congrats to your Muskies. Go out and knock the Hawks to the NIT.