The magic finally ran out for Fordham.

Toumani Camara scored 28 points and Dayton pulled away for a 78-68 victory over the Rams on Saturday in the Atlantic 10 Conference semifinals at Barclays Center.

Fordham had achieved its first 20-win season since 1990-91, and the head-coaching debut of Keith Urgo couldn’t have gone much better. But Saturday, after a 3-pointer by Will Richardson pulled the Rams within 59-58 with 6:13 left, a 9-0 run gave Dayton the breathing room it needed. The Rams never got closer than seven after that.

Khalid Moore led No. 3-seed Fordham (25-8) with 24 points. DaRon Holmes II chipped in 20 for second-seeded Dayton (21-11).

The Flyers will face VCU in the championship game Sunday for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Fordham’s season, the first under Urgo and the Rams’ most successful in decades, could still include an NIT bid.

“We’re a winning program now,” Urgo said. “Fordham hasn’t had a losing season in two years now. So there’s expectations of winning now.”

The Rams had choreographed an unexpected run this season, finishing above .500 for the first time since 2016. For the first 14 minutes Saturday, though, Fordham’s magic appeared mortal. The Rams fell behind 28-20 with 6:21 left in the first half as the storybook season seemed to be near a close.

With 3-pointers not falling, the Rams found their scoring from Moore and Rostyslav Novitskyi, who converted shots close to the basket and finished with 13 points.

Then, everything flipped. The 3s worked. The defense kept causing disruption. After only leading for 1:02 in the first half, Kyle Rose made a jumper in front of the Fordham bench to tie the score at 41 with 17:12 left in the game. On their next possession, Richardson hit a 3-pointer and the Rams had a 44-41 lead.

“We kinda like to thrive off our defense,” Moore said, “so that’s kind of our standard. We just try to bring the energy on the defensive end, and I feel like our offense will figure itself out after that.”

Darius Quisenberry injured his shoulder early in the second half, forcing the Rams to operate without one of their key guards for a few minutes while he winced at the end of the bench. Then, he did shoulder shrugs and reentered.

Just like that, there was magic again. That’s what a 9-0 Rams run, and the return of someone like Quisenberry, will do.

But Fordham couldn’t hang on. Dayton used its own 9-0 run, sandwiched around the under-4 timeout, to build a comfortable lead. On the first sequence following the break, the Flyers’ Mustapha Amzil connected on a 3-pointer from the right wing to cap the run.

That was the dagger. That was the end for Fordham. And the emotion started to hit Urgo about nine minutes into his press conference.

There had been tears in the locker room, he said. There was one final postgame walk for the Rams: past the student section and fans, their companions through the program’s turnaround, and down the tunnel after the handshake line.

But then Urgo was asked a question about Quisenberry. He paused for nine seconds. Reached toward a water battle. Took a heavy breath.

“We’ll be forever grateful for that young man,” Urgo said of the transfer who spent two seasons at Fordham after transferring from Youngstown State.

During that time, Quisenberry became a key bridge, alongside others such as Moore, connecting the past and what has now become a promising future for the Rams.

“They’ll come back and they’ll be ready to go,” Urgo said. “This isn’t just a one-hit wonder.”