Fordham upsets St. John's, 84-81

Take it with a grain of salt if you like, but Tom Pecora said the unfathomable scene last night at Rose Hill Gym, Fordham's ancient bandbox, "was my vision when I came here."

OK, it strains credulity to think anyone could take over a 2-26 team, as Pecora did after he left Hofstra and was snubbed by St. John's for its coaching vacancy, and then beat new Red Storm coach Steve Lavin, who took over a Big East team with 10 seniors. Not just beat St. John's (5-2) but come back from 21 points down midway through the second half.

But after St. John's Dwight Hardy, who had a career-high 30 points, missed two three-pointers in the final nine seconds, Pecora opened his eyes and saw what felt like the entire Fordham student body flooding the court in delirious celebration of an 84-81 upset of their rivals from Queens.

"It was awesome," Pecora said of the postgame scene. "The place was rocking, and the crowd takes it to another level. I'm so happy for the team and for the people of Fordham. They've been through some rough times, and a night like this is special for a great university."

Nine games into the Pecora era, the Rams are 5-4. Who could have envisioned that? "It feels great," said junior guard Alberto Estwick, who had 20 points and five assists. "I'm overwhelmed. This is our first time to have a winning record."

He meant since he's been at Fordham, which totaled five wins in his first two seasons. The Rams also got 15 points and 13 rebounds from Chris Gaston, 16 points from freshman guard Branden Frazier, who originally was recruited to Hofstra by Pecora, and 22 points from senior guard Brenton Butler, who made the key shot at the end of the game for the Rams, not to mention the shots that got the unbelievable comeback rolling.

After St. John's went ahead 60-39 with 16:12 to play, Butler hit a three, and after a dunk at the other end by St. John's D.J. Kennedy (16 points, nine rebounds), Butler converted a four-point play, making a three and the foul shot that followed. The four-pointer was the start of a 16-0 Fordham run that cut the deficit to 62-58.

St. John's pushed the lead to 73-61 mostly by scoring off a full-court press that led to whopping advantages of 50-22 in points in the paint and 28-13 in points off turnovers. How was Fordham supposed to combat that?

"I told these guys to just hang around until the end,'' Pecora said, "and we'll figure out what to do in the last five minutes."

The "great equalizer," as Pecora put it, was the Rams' 12-for-23 shooting from three-point range, and they also out-rebounded St. John's 38-34.

The Rams took the lead with 6:15 left when Gaston scored on a layup, and after it went back and forth another four times, they forged ahead for good at 82-81 on two foul shots by Marvin Dominique. Finally, with 13.1 seconds showing, Butler hit a 14-footer from left of the foul line to make it a three-point game and force Hardy's pair of desperation three-pointers.

How sweet was it when the buzzer sounded? "I'm not going to lie," Pecora said. "It's St. John's . . . Before the game, I said to the players, 'It's St. John's. They didn't recruit any of us. They didn't recruit me as a player or as a coach.' I told them in one timeout when I was blind with anger that it's not OK to lose to them."

The Rams listened.