The second half of Wednesday’s loss to Fordham won’t make the UMass men’s basketball season highlight reel.

Trailing by seven points at halftime, the host Rams flipped the script considerably in the second half. Fordham scored 45 points after intermission, rallying past the Minutemen for a 77-67 Atlantic 10 Conference victory at Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx, N.Y.

Fordham continued its historic season with the win, improving to 19-5 overall and 7-4 in the A-10. It was a program-record 15th home victory of the season. UMass fell to 13-11, 4-8 in the conference.

The Rams outscored UMass 45-28 after halftime. Fordham held a 39-30 edge in rebounds, grabbing 15 offensive boards in total. They shot 27-for-34 from the free throw line.

“We didn’t make as many defensive breakdowns and our intensity picked way up,” Fordham coach Keith Urgo said of the second half turnaround.

Trailing 39-32 at halftime, Fordham used a 12-2 run out of halftime and took a 44-41 lead with 15:47 remaining. The Rams hit just 1-of-10 3-pointers in the first half but hit three of the first four they took in the second half.

The lead grew to as many as 15 points (60-45), but UMass rallied back down the stretch. Keon Thompson’s foul line jumper with 3:56 left made it a 67-61 game, and Thompson hit a layup with 1:52 remaining to keep the Minutemen within 69-63.

That would be as close as UMass would get however, as Matt Cross was called for an offensive foul with 1:12 left and the visitors down 70-63. On the other end, Fordham’s Darius Quisenberry converted an and-one, sealing the deal with just over a minute to play.

Quisenberry led Fordham with 21 points, 12 coming from the free throw line. Khalid Moore had 19 points in the victory to go with seven rebounds.

Cross led UMass with 17 points, three steals and five rebounds, while Keon Thompson (13 points), Brandon Martin (11) and Wildens Leveque (11) all finished in double figures. 

It was a dream start for the Minutemen. Keon Thompson’s 3-pointer with 11:32 left in the first half staked the visitors to a 15-13 lead.

That 3-ball jumpstarted a 13-4 UMass run, which included 3-pointers from Cross and Brandon Martin (who hit just his third triple of the season). A dunk from Leveque and a layup from Cross give the Minutemen a 28-18 advantage with 5:53 remaining.

UMass, which shot 53.8-percent in the first half (14-for-26) and hit 4-of-8 3-pointers, extended its lead to as many as 10 points (30-20).

Leveque’s monster jam with 55 seconds remaining extended the lead to 37-30, and Dyondre Dominguez followed with a pair of free throws. Quisenberry’s layup with just four seconds to go pulled the Rams within 39-32 at halftime.

Fordham was just 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half, continuing a trend during the A-10 portion of the season that has seen the Rams shoot the lowest percentage in the league since league play began (26.9 percent).

Next up for UMass is a road game at La Salle on Saturday at 2 p.m.

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