NEW YORK – GW’s contest with Fordham at Madison Square Garden saw the Rams go to the free-throw line nine more times than the Colonials Saturday afternoon. The Rams converted 22 of 32 attempts while the Colonials sunk 17 of 23. Against Xavier Tuesday night, GW was called for 19 more fouls, contributing to a lopsided 50-8 margin in free-throw attempts. But what hurt the Colonials more than foul calls against them Saturday were calls that refs failed to make against Fordham. Despite drives into the lane, SirValiant Brown (20 points) was only fouled once and shot just 1-for-2 from the line.

“The thing that I will say upsets me is that I think Val Brown gets zero respect from the officials,” GW coach Tom Penders said. “He gives everything he has. Last year he was one of the leaders in the country in going to the free-throw line. He’s getting knocked pretty good.”

At a critical point in the second half, with the Colonials down by six points with 7:43 remaining in the game, Fordham was called for its ninth team foul. For the next 6:14, the officials did not call a foul against Fordham, despite the fact that Brown and Chris Monroe found themselves knocked to the floor numerous times.

“We were trying to go to the foul line,” Penders said. “When we got them in that situation, we talked about it during the timeout. `We have them in the bonus now, let’s keep pounding the ball inside.’ We just weren’t successful at it.”