In the second game of their 2025-26 A10 campaign, the Fordham Rams once again hit the court with a shortened roster. Abass Bodija, who also missed the loss to Dayton with an ankle injury, and Roor Akhuar, who injured his foot in the first half of that loss, were unavailable for Sunday’s matchup with the Richmond Spiders at Rose Hill Gym. While their absences left 12.9 combined PPG off the board, the return of Christian Henry, who also missed the Dayton game due to a concussion, provided enough offensive prowess to make up the difference and then some.
Usually a starter, Henry checked into the game at the 16:06 mark with Fordham down 6-4 to the Spiders. Richmond’s first two buckets came off the hot hand of Mike Walz, who found himself open for two early three-pointers at the top of the key. Walz would finish the game 4-4 from deep en route to 14 points. Richmond held a big advantage in general beyond the arc, shooting 13-19 from deep compared to Fordham’s 5-21.
While Fordham kept it close with good plays inside, turnovers continued to stall their momentum.
“It’s just disappointing, because [on] opening night, that [communication] was a huge problem,” Magpayo said postgame, referring to the loss to NJIT in November. “And I do think we’re going to see [that] a lot of these [errors] were [due to a lack of] communication. Hopefully we can get a healthy practice with everybody together out there.”
Richmond scored 20 points off 14 Rams turnovers.
When Fordham could maintain control of the ball, the offense played well to their strengths. Jack Whitbourn and Rikus Schulte continued to dominate on the glass, combining for 12 of Fordham’s 18 offensive rebounds. Defensively, Fordham was a lot more effective at limiting Richmond from three in the second half. After Fordham trailed just 33-28 at the break with such a disadvantage from three, limiting Richmond’s presence beyond the arc helped flip things around.
“We tried to say ‘let’s give them less than eight [threes] today,’” Magpayo said. “And then Walz kind of broke that open with four. But again, I was telling them [that] it’s not Walz’ threes that’s going to get us. We just have to continue to do the job on the [primary] scorers.”
After the Spiders shot 8-12 from deep in the first half, they went 4-12 in the second. With Richmond’s three-point production down, Fordham began to close the gap.
Out of the half, Jack Whitbourn hit two consecutive buckets to get the Rams within 33-32. After a good stop and rebound from Whitbourn a few possessions later, the Australian sophomore dished to Dey Dey Reaves in transition, with Reaves taking it to the house to give Fordham a 36-35 lead. Whitbourn’s post defense gave Fordham some room to stretch their lead to 41-37 ahead of the under-16 media timeout.
Out of the timeout, Ballhandler Marcus Greene found himself backed all the way up to the Fordham logo by Richmond’s defenders, unable to find a lane to drive or a teammate to dish to. With the shot clock within 5 seconds, Greene heaved up a desperate shot that clanked off the front of the iron, but Whitbourn, parked right under the basket, snagged the rebound and dropped the ball into the hoop to give Fordham a 43-37 lead. This would be their largest lead of the day.
“The focus is to get the ball inside to these guys,” Magpayo said, referring to Whitbourn and Schulte. “And when Bodija gets back [we can] kind of continue to use this length. But they’re definitely creating driving lanes the way that they’re posting and engaging guys down there, and they’re making it hard to rebound against us.”
Whitbourn finished the day with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Schulte finished with 17 and 11, respectively. Dejour Reaves led all Fordham scorers with 19 points.
Down 56-52 with 8 minutes to play, Will Johnston and Jaden Daughtry hit threes on back-to-back possessions to put the Spiders up 58-56. Johnston, who was held scoreless in the first half, would finish the game with 20 points off 6-10 shooting from the field, 6-7 at the stripe. Those two shots from Johnston and Daughtry began a three-point barrage from which Fordham would never recover, allowing Richmond to leave the Bronx with an 83-75 win. For Magpayo, Fordham’s failure to adjust to Johnston’s shot selection sunk this game for the Rams.
“Those are the moments that winning programs, like, they figure that out,” Magpayo said. “That’s where you earn the win or you don’t, and we’re still learning that.”
As a program, Fordham’s losing streak to Richmond extends to 8 games. The Rams continue their Atlantic 10 campaign Wednesday when they host the George Mason Patriots.
