Men's Basketball Defeats UMass, 71-68

Amherst, Mass. – While not quite as dramatic as the overtime win over VCU on Wednesday, today's Atlantic 10 contest at the University of Massachusetts was every bit as exciting, not being fully decided until junior forward Christian Sengfelder buried a pair of free throws, two of his game-high 20 points, with three second left and a Minuteman desperation three at the buzzer bounced off the backboard as the Rams defeated UMass, 71-68, in the Mullins Center.
 
With the win, Fordham's second straight and third in its past four games, the Rams improve to 9-11 overall, 3-4 in the Atlantic 10, while Massachusetts drops to 12-8 overall, 2-5 in the conference.
 
Though the film Glengarry Glen Ross was released before anyone on the current Fordham team was born, Alec Baldwin's character, Blake, provided a monologue that was perfect for today's game, a monologue punctuated by "Always Be Closing." And the Rams sure closed today, holding off a UMass comeback and closing the game with a solid defensive stand. UMass was inbounding the ball under the basket with just over five seconds remaining and the Rams up one, 69-68. As the Minuteman in bounder tried to lob the ball to Rashaan Holloway, Fordham's Chuba Ohams managed to get a finger on the ball and tip it to Sengfelder, who was fouled with three seconds on the clock.
 
Sengfelder sank both of his free throws and a DeJon Jarreau three-pointer from midcourt at the buzzer bounded off the backboard.
 
"This win is a credit to our team, not one individual," said Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer following the game. "The fact that we are still competing and playing so hard is a credit to our team. For us to fight after going through such a hard time, I'm really impressed with our guys."
 
Sengfelder added nine rebounds to his 20 points while graduate student guard Javontae Hawkins netted 18 points and sophomore forward Prokop Slanina chipped in with a season-high 13 points to go with seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Joseph Chartouny had another strong all-around game, scoring eight points while dishing out eight assists and recording four steals before fouling out with 2:34 remaining in the game.
 
The Fordham defense played a major role in the win, forcing 19 UMass turnovers and recording 14 steals.
 
The Rams took a six-point lead, 67-61, on a Hawkins three-pointer with 4:32 left but a Holloway layup and Brison Gresham three-point play over the next two minutes made it a one-point game, 67-66.
 
After a scoreless two minute stretch, the shot clock was running down on the Rams as Antwoine Anderson got off a jumper that Slanina was able to tip in. The officials blew the call dead to check on replay to see if the original shot hit the rim and concluded it had.
 
The Slanina basket gave Fordham a 69-66 lead with 46 seconds left but Donte Clark was fouled going to the hoop and sank both of his charity shots four seconds later to make it a one-point game again, 69-68.
 
The Rams worked the shot clock down before Anderson's driving layup fell off the rim and was rebounded by Clark. Clark drove the floor but missed a layup. However, the ball went out of bounds off Fordham, giving the Minutemen a chance with five seconds on the clock. But Ohams made sure that UMass wouldn't get that chance.
 
The Rams return to action next Saturday, January 28, as they host the Davidson College Wildcats in the Rose Hill Gym for an Atlantic 10 game at 12:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network.
 
Notes
The Rams have now taken three straight from the Minutemen, including the past two meetings in Amherst (where Fordham recorded its first ever Atlantic 10 road win in 1999).
 
Though there were five ties in the game, Fordham lead for a majority of the game for the second straight contest, leading the Minutemen for 31:42 minutes (UMass led for 5:10 and the game was tied for 3:08).
 
The 42 first half points by Fordham are the most in an A-10 game this year for the Rams.
 
Fordham grabbed a season-high 15 offensive rebounds (previous high was 14) and have recorded double-digit offensive rebounds in six straight games (72 total in the six games).
 
The 14 steals was one shy of Fordham's season-high.
 
Slanina's previous season-high in scoring was ten, which he accomplished twice, most recently at Davidson.
 
Sengfelder was 7-for-8 from the free throw line, both season-highs with the seven makes tying his career-high.
 
Chartouny's four steals bring his season total to 68, the sixth best single season total in Fordham history (the school record is 78 by Jason Harris in 1999-2000).
 
It was the first time in his collegiate career that Chartouny fouled out of a game.