Men’s Basketball Falls to Saint Joseph’s

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Bronx, N.Y. – Coming off a road win last week, the Fordham University men's basketball squad was hoping to build off that momentum but instead ran into a Saint Joseph's University team who held the Rams in check, as the Hawks defeated Fordham, 82-60, in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 12-9 overall, 3-7 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Joseph's improves to 19-4 overall, 8-2 in the conference, and the Hawks remain the only undefeated NCAA Division I team on the road (8-0).
 

Fordham fell despite getting 16 points from both Ryan Rhoomes and Christian Sengfelder, with Rhoomes adding nine rebounds and Sengfelder tying his career-high with four three-pointers made. But it was who didn't play for the Rams today that mattered as leading scorer Mandell Thomas sat out the game with an injury.
 
The Hawks won by hitting eleven three-pointers, shooting 45.8 percent from behind the arc (11-24), while holding Fordham to shooting just 38.9 percent (21-54) from the field and 27.6 percent (8-29) from long range.
 
The Rams started off hot scoring the first seven points of the game on a pair of Rhoomes jumpers and a Sengfelder three to take a 7-0 lead four minutes into the game. But Saint Joseph's used an 18-6 run over the next seven minutes to take an 18-13 lead with 8:48 left in the half.
 
An Antwoine Anderson jumper with 7:51 on the clock pulled Fordham within three, 18-15, but the Hawks then went a 16-3 run to build a 34-18 lead with 4:07 left in the half.
 
Fordham was able to cut the deficit to ten at the break, 40-30, and a Joseph Chartouny three-pointer to open the second half made it a seven-point game, 40-33, but the Hawks used a 15-4 run to take a commanding 55-37 lead with 14:29 left and the closest the Rams would get from there would be 13, 57-44, following a Jon Severe three with 12:50 remaining.
 
Severe also finished in double figures for the Rams with 14, hitting three three-pointers, while Chartouny tied his season-high with seven assists.
 
The Rams return to action on Wednesday night, February 10, as they host the St. Bonaventure University Bonnies in the Rose Hill Gym in an Atlantic 10 game at 7:00 p.m.
 

 
Notes
Rhoomes' nine rebounds brings his career rebounding total to 812, moving him ahead of Darryl Brown (1972-1975), who was at the game, and into seventh on the school's all-time rebounding list.
 
Rhoomes has scored in double figures in 19 of the 21 games this year.
 
Rhoomes also blocked two shots to bring his career total to 127, good for fifth on the Fordham career list.
 
Rhoomes, who entered the game sixth in the NCAA Division I in field goal percentage, connected on seven of his nine shots today to bring his season percentage to .665 (119-179).
 
Sengfelder originally set his career-high with four made threes against Manhattan earlier this year.
 
The game was only the third game over the past four years missed by Thomas.