Men’s Basketball Drops Battle of the Bronx to Manhattan

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Brooklyn, N.Y. (December 22, 2014) – The annual Fordham-Manhattan men's basketball rivalry was played outside of the Bronx for the first time since the two schools paired off at Madison Sqaure Garden in 2001 and, like that game, the Rams came up short tonight, falling to the Jaspers, 71-57, at the Barclays Center as part of the 2014 Brooklyn Holiday Hoops Invitational.
 
Manhattan entered the game shooting just 29.4% from behind the arc but couldn't seem to miss tonight, hitting nine of its 18 long distance shots. Conversely, the Rams shot 5-16 from three-point range.
 
The Rams bookended a great first six minutes with a good ten minutes in the second half but couldn't overcome the in between.
 

Fordham jumped out to a 16-4 lead 6:16 into the game, thanks to hot shooting, including six points from Antwoine Anderson, and the Ram defense was just as good, holding Manhattan to converting just two of its first nine field goal attempts.
 
But then the Rams' offense went cold as the Jaspers starting heating up, outscoring Fordham 26-7 over the next  12 minutes to take a 30-23 lead with two minutes left in the half. A Mandell Thomas jumper with just over a minute left in the period cut the Fordham deficit to five at the break, 30-25.
 
Manhattan opened the second half with a 22-7 spurt to take its largest lead of the night, 52-30, on an Emmy Andujar layup with 12:15 on the clock.
 
The Rams then started to battle back, using a 15-6 run to trim a 56-38 deficit into a 62-53 shortfall with 1:33 remaining but that was as close as they would get. Thomas led the charge for Fordham with eight points while Christian Sengfelder added four, including a layup to cap the run.
 
Thomas led the Rams with 14 points and he added five rebounds and four assists while Ryan Rhoomes, Eric Paschall and Sengfelder each added eight points. Sengfelder grabbed ten rebounds while Rhoomes had seven with three blocks.
 
The Rams return to action on Sunday, December 28, as they host the Howard University Bison in the Rose Hill Gym at 6:00 PM in a game that will be televised live on SportsNet NY (SNY).
 
Notes
The game was the second double figure rebounding game for Sengfelder over the past three contests… Fordham outrebounded Manhattan, 35-32, the seventh time in nine games that the Rams have outrebounded their opponent… Anderson led all players in the game with six assists and he now has 25 in the past five games… Bryan Smith had a season-high three steals… Andujar was named the Mike Cohen MVP of the game.

Postgame Press Conference (Courtesy of 1495sports.com)