Men's Basketball Falls to Rutgers, 68-53

New York, N.Y. – When the Fordham-Rutgers game started today at Madison Square Garden the teams could feel the cold ice under the court as the arena was scheduled to host a hockey game at night. That cold seemed to affect the Rams shooting as Fordham couldn't overcome a cold first half from the field, falling to the Scarlet Knights, 68-53, in the 2016 ECAC/MSG Holiday Festival.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 5-7 while Rutgers improves to 11-1.
 
Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer shook things up for the Rams, bringing leading scorer, graduate student Javontae Hawkins, and leading assist man, junior Joseph Chartouny, in off the bench and both responded as Chartouny led all Rams with 17 points while also matching his career-high with seven steals while Hawkins finished with ten points and six rebounds.
 
The Rams entered the game shorthanded as neither junior guard Nemanja Zarkovic nor sophomore forward Jesse Bunting dressed due to injury and Fordham lost junior guard Will Tavares in the first half with an injury.
 
The Rams trailed at the half, 34-20, as Fordham shot 30.0% (9-30) over the first 20 minutes, including 1-12 from behind the arc. Fordham missed its first eleven long distance shots before Chartouny hit one just before the break.
 
Fordham opened the second half with an 11-4 spurt to cut the deficit to seven, 38-31, five minutes in to the half following an Anderson three. Chartouny got things started with a pair of free throws and then buried a three-pointer over the first 30 seconds.
 
The Rams would trail by seven four more times over the next five minutes, the final at 47-40 on an Anderson layup with 9:06 remaining. But ten straight Rutgers points helped the Scarlet Knights take a commanding 17-point lead, 57-40, at the 5:52 mark and the closest the Rams would get from that point would be eleven, 60-49, after a pair of Hawkins free throws with 2:47 left.
 
With a new starting line of redshirt junior Antwoine Anderson, Tavares, junior Christian Sengfelder, sophomore David Pekárek and sophomore Prokop Slanina the Rams jumped out to an 8-2 lead over the first three minutes with four of the points coming from Tavares.
 
Fordham led by two, 12-10, following a Pekárek layup with 11:41 on the clock but the Scarlet Knights used a 15-3 run to take a 25-15 lead with six minutes remaining and then bumped the lead to as many as 17, 34-17, before the Chartouny three-pointer with five seconds remaining made it a 34-20 game at the half.
 
Anderson also finished in double figures for the Rams with eleven points and he dished out a season-high seven assists.
 
The Rams return to action on Wednesday, December 21, as they host Central Connecticut State University in the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 p.m.
 
Notes
Chartouny's seven steals matched his career-high, set last year against Maine.
 
Anderson's previous season-high in assists was five against NYIT.
 
The Rams recorded ten steals in the game, the ninth time in 12 games this year that Fordham had a double digit steal total.
 
Fordham forced Rutgers into 17 turnovers and outscored the Scarlet Knights in points off turnovers, 21-10.
 
The Rams tied their season-high with seven blocked shots, three of those from Slanina.