Men's Basketball Takes Down Saint Louis, 54-40

Bronx, N.Y. - The Fordham University men's basketball team learned that it would be without the services of starting sophomore guard Joseph Chartouny, who was not available for today's Atlantic 10 game with Saint Louis due to a family emergency, following a morning walkthrough. But his teammates stepped up, led by redshirt junior guard Antwoine Anderson who scored a game-high 20 points, as the Rams defeated the Billikens, 54-40, in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the win, Fordham improves to 11-15 overall, 6-8 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Louis falls to 9-18, 4-10 in the conference.
 
With Chartouny out, the Rams found themselves having to switch from their planned man-to-man defense to a zone. But that didn't seem to affect the Fordham unit as the Rams held their second straight Atlantic 10 opponent to scoring in the 40s, limiting Saint Louis to shooting 37.5 percent (15-40) from the field and 26.7 percent (4-15) from behind the arc. The Billikens scored just 19 first half points, the lowest point total in a half for a Fordham opponent this season, while the 40 point scored by Saint Louis are the fewest by a Fordham opponent since a 42-40 win over Army West Point in 1993.
 
The game was a milestone game for Fordham junior Christian Sengfelder, who scored his 1,000th career point with a jumper with 3:32 left in the game. He becomes the 37th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
 

Anderson, who connected on his first four three-pointers of the game, shot 8-for-13 from the field, and added three rebounds, two assists and two steals while graduate student guard Javontae Hawkins netted 17 points, shooting 5-for-7 from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe, and blocked three shots.
 
The Rams led for most of the game, taking the lead for good at 5-4 on a Sengfelder jumper 3:12 into the game.
 
Leading by four, 10-6, three minutes later, Fordham used a 15-5 run to take a 25-11 lead on an Anderson three with 5:04 left in the half. Anderson paced the Rams with nine points in the run, on three three-pointers, while Hawkins added four.
 
Eight straight Saint Louis points got the Fordham lead down to six, 25-19, with 2:32 remaining in the half but a Hawkins jumper with 49 seconds left gave Fordham a 27-19 halftime lead.
 
The Billikens managed to shave the Fordham lead to five, 29-24, two minutes into the second half but a Hawkins three started a 7-0 Ram spurt as the home squad took a 36-24 lead with 14:00 remaining.
 
Saint Louis again started to cut into the Fordham lead, getting the deficit to eight, 42-34, on an Aaron Hines three midway through the half but a 12-1 Fordham run helped ice the game as the Rams took a 19-point lead, 54-35, with 3:32 on the clock following Sengfelder's 1,000th career point.
 
The Rams return to action on Wednesday, February 22, as they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Duquesne University Dukes in an Atlantic 10 game at 7:00 p.m.
 
Notes
 
The Rams have taken two of the past three meetings with Saint Louis but the Billikens lead the all-time series, 10-3.
 
The previous low for points in a half by a Fordham opponent this year was 20, first by Saint Peter's and then VCU (both in the first half).
 
The 21 second half points scored by Saint Louis matches the season-low for a Fordham opponent in the second half (Saint Peter's).
 
It is the first time the Rams held back-to-back opponents to scoring in the 40s since the 2004-2005 season while the 40 points is an all-time low for a Fordham opponent in Atlantic 10 play.
 
The Billikens made six free throws, the lowest total for a Fordham opponent this year (former low was seven at Rhode Island on Wednesday night).
 
Over the past two games, Fordham has held the opponents to shooting 17.1 percent (6-35) from behind the arc.
 
The 20 points matches Anderson's season-high, originally set at Saint Joseph's while the eight made field goals is a season-high (former mark was seven vs. UT Arlington) and his four three-pointers made matches his career-high.
 
Fordham matched a season high with seven blocks in the game (three each from Hawkins and Jesse Bunting).
 
Freshman guard Cavit Havsa played a season-high 28 minutes, finishing with two points and a season-best four assists.
 
Sengfelder hit a pair of three-pointers in the game to bring his career total to 149, tenth on the Fordham career list.