An 18-9 lead at the midway point of the first half gave the Massachusetts basketball team hope that it might extend its two-game winning streak and move within a game of .500 on the season against Fordham in the Bronx Wednesday night.

But things went south quickly, as the Rams (13-11, 4-9 Atlantic 10) went on a 27-0 run to take control of the game for good and beat UMass (11-14, 4-9 A-10) 76-66 at Rose Hill Gymnasium. The win marked a season sweep for Fordham over the Minutemen.

“Was it 27-0? I knew it was bad, but I didn’t think it was that bad,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg told reporters after the game. “I mean, they made seven straight 3s, I thought we let their zone affect us some on the offensive end of the floor. It took a little wind out of our sails defensively. Now I know what it feels like when we’ve played some other teams and we made seven or eight in a row. That’s not a fun feeling as a coach or a player.”

Trey Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, leading the Minutemen in both categories in the defeat. Guards Donte Clark and Jabarie Hinds added 13 and 12 points respectively, but combined to shoot just 7-of-25 from the field in the game.

Coming off a career-high 37-point outing against Duquesne, Hinds struggled to find his offensive rhythm, going 3-of-9 from the floor including a 1-for-4 performance from beyond the arc. He was held scoreless in the first half.

Kellogg attributed part of Hinds’ struggles to playing in front of friends and family, as Fordham is a short drive from the redshirt senior’s hometown of Mount Vernon, New York.

“I think any time you score 37 the day before and you’re coming home, the expectations are probably pretty high for yourself, for your people that are here,” Kellogg said. “He didn’t have his best game, put it that way. He played like he was at home.”

Joseph Chartouny led a balanced Rams offense with 16 points and eight assists. Six of the seven Fordham players that appeared in the game scored at least nine points, with five players reaching double figures.

The Minutemen jumped out to their early lead behind a balanced offensive effort, as seven different players scored to stake them their early nine-point lead.

But the Rams stormed back – and ahead – behind a 3-point barrage. Fordham hit seven 3s during the 27-0 run, building a lead they would hold for the rest of the game.

“We let the bleeding go on for a little longer than maybe I would’ve liked,” Kellogg said understatedly. “I called a couple timeouts to try to go with different lineups and see if we could make something happen, but nothing really seemed to be working at that point.”

Despite the staggering run, UMass had a spirited start to the second half, using an 8-0 run to bring the game within seven points.

But every time the Minutemen seemed to get close, Fordham had an answer, and the Rams kept UMass at arm’s length for the rest of the game.

“It definitely felt like (we were getting close), but we didn’t get that second punch, that second gear that we needed to,” Hinds told reporters after the game.

“I thought they were giving us opportunities up until the last maybe minute and a half of cutting into the lead and maybe making some plays, but we did not take advantage of those opportunities,” Kellogg added.

With the loss, the Minutemen dropped to 3-2 in the month of February after an abysmal January that saw them go 1-7. Kellogg said that like their recent play, the effort Tuesday night wasn’t all bad, but wasn’t quite consistent enough to come away with a road victory.

“I think we’re doing some things well,” Kellogg said. “We’ve got to be able to put it together for one, two, three, four games in a row. And we showed some signs tonight, we just weren’t able to do it for 40 minutes.”

UMass will return to action in a Sunday afternoon matinee against George Mason at Mullins Center. Tip-off for the A-10 conference matchup is set for 4 p.m. and the game can be viewed on television on NBC Sports Network.

Ross Gienieczko can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @RossGien.