Men’s Basketball Falls in Overtime to St. Bonaventure

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Bronx, N.Y. - In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting. The Fordham and St. Bonaventure men's basketball teams helped Catholics in the stands of the Rose Hill Gym take their minds off the fast, playing an up tempo, back-and-forth game that went to overtime before the Bonnies pulled out a 76-72 Atlantic 10 win over the Rams.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 12-10 overall, 3-8 in the Atlantic 10, while St. Bonaventure improves to 16-6 overall, 8-3 in the conference.
 
The two teams were as even as can be on the stat sheet with both squads connecting on 27 field goals, nine of which were three-pointers, but the Bonnies, who entered the game ranked second in the nation in free throw shooting, connected on four more charity shots which proved to be the difference.

 

Ryan Rhoomes led the Rams with a game-high 23 points and nine rebounds while David Pekárek added a season-high 19 points, shooting 4-for-9 from behind the arc. Joseph Chartouny chipped in with his fourth double-double of the year, scoring 15 points and dishing out a season-high eleven assists to go with four steals.
 
Fordham had a chance to win in regulation but Antwoine Anderson's jumper at the buzzer hit the rim and bounced away.
 
The Boonies took a 68-66 lead on a Idris Taqqee layup 14 seconds into overtime before Rhoomes tied the game with a jumper 26 seconds later. After a Marcus Posley free throw gave St. Bonaventure the lead, Rhoomes responded with a pair of charity shots for the Rams to give Fordham a 70-69 advantage with 2:49 remaining.
 
Chartouny boosted the Fordham lead to three, 72-69, with two free throws at the 2:04 mark but those would be the last points for the Rams as Denzel Gregg and Posley hit free throws with 1:50 and 1:22 remaining, respectively, to give the Bonnies the lead for good, 73-72.
 
Chartouny's three with just over a minute left fell out but he rebounded a Bonaventure miss with 47 ticks on the clock and got the ball to Anderson who was called for traveling. Taqqee gave the Bonnies a 75-72 lead with a jumper with 18 seconds left before a Nemanja Zarkovic game-tying three eleven seconds later was no good.
 
Fordham forced the overtime period with a strong finish in in regulation. Trailing by seven, 51-44, midway through the second, a Chartouny three and Rhoomes jumper made it a two-point game, 51-49, with nine minutes remaining.
 
The Bonnies bumped their lead back to six, 57-51, with 7:33 left but a Chartouny three-pointer and Anderson layup cut the Fordham deficit to one, 57-56, with 5:59 on the clock.
 
After a Dion Wright free throw gave St. Bonaventure a three-point lead, Zarkovic tied it at 59 with a long range shot with five minutes remaining.
 
The Rams would go on to take a 66-62 lead following a Rhoomes layup with 3:09 left but the Bonnies scored the final four points of regulation on free throws to send the game to overtime.
 
Anderson added seven points and four assists for the Rams.
 
Fordham returns to action on Saturday, February 13, as the Rams travel to Richmond, Virginia, to face the University of Richmond Spiders in an Atlantic 10 contest in the Robins Center at 6:00 p.m.


 
Notes

Chris Walker served as the "Montefiore Honorary Captain of the Game". He is a premature baby born at Montefiore (Albert Einstein). When he was born he wasn't breathing and needed a lot of assistance with life. Chris is now a very strong 19-year-old who has fought through several battles throughout his life. Most recently, he underwent orthopedic surgery to correct his Scoliosis on August 21, a procedure that took ten hours due to bleeding issues. But thanks to Dr. Schulz and his team of doctors at Montefiore, Chris pulled through the surgery.

Senior guard Mandell Thomas missed his second straight game with an injury.
 
Rhoomes' nine rebounds bring his career total to 821, good for seventh on the Fordham all-time list.
 
Rhoomes also had two blocks in the game to bring his career total to 129, fifth all-time at Fordham.
 
Rhoomes entered the game shooting .665 from the field, fifth best in the nation, and went 10-for-13 tonight to raise his shooting percentage to .672 (the Fordham single season record is .616, set by Damon Lopez in 1990-1991)..
 
Rhoomes also moved into a tie with Thomas for the team's scoring lead with 14.1 ppg.
 
Pekárek's previous season-high was eleven, set at UMass.
 
Chartouny's previous season-high for assists was seven, set against FDU and tied three times.
 
Fordham assisted on 20 of its 27 baskets.
 
The Rams recorded ten steals in the game, the eleventh time this year they have recorded ten or more steals in a game.
 
The game was the third overtime game of the year for the Rams who are now 2-1 in extra sessions (the last time Fordham played three overtime games in one season was 2005-2006).