Men's Basketball Falls to Richmond

Bronx, N.Y. – Achilles had his heel, Superman had his kryptonite and it seems that Fordham University men's basketball has the University of Richmond. Despite riding a three-game winning streak into today's Atlantic 10 contest, the Rams fell for the 14th straight time to the Spiders, dropping a 70-48 decision in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 13-16 overall, 7-9 in the Atlantic 10, while Richmond improves to 17-11 overall, 11-5 in the conference.
 
The Rams fell despite a team-high 16 points from junior guard Antwoine Anderson, who shot 6-for-10 from the field, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc. He also added three steals and two assists.
 

The Fordham three-game winning streak was a result of strong defense and good ball protection but both of those aspects of the game failed the Rams tonight. In the three victories, the Rams held their opponents to shooting just 35.5 percent from the field (49-138) and 16.3 percent from behind the arc (8-49) while today Richmond shot 50.0 percent from the field (27-54) and hit nine three-pointers. The Rams also turned the ball over 18 times today, which the Spiders converted into 18 points.
 
The game started out well for the Rams, who jumped out a 9-5 lead three minutes into the contest, thanks to two Anderson three-pointers and another from Christian Sengfelder.
 
The Rams led by one, 11-10, following a Javontae Hawkins dunk with 13:25 left in the half when the Spiders used an 8-2 spurt to take an 18-13 lead three minutes later.
 
Fordham got it down to four, 20-16, on a pair of Joseph Chartouny free throws with 7:46 on the clock but back-to-back-to-back De'Monte Buckingham three-pointers over the next two minutes boosted the Richmond lead to 13, 29-16, and the Spiders would build the lead to 20 at the break, 40-20.
 
After a Buckingham lay in bumped the Richmond lead to 22, 42-20, 16 seconds in to the second half, the Rams reeled off eight straight points to cut the deficit to 14, 42-28, on a Cavit Havsa layup with 17:19 remaining.
 
Later in the half, Fordham used an 8-2 run to trim a 19-point Richmond advantage to 13, 55-42, following an Anderson three-point play, but that was as close as the Rams would get.
 
Fordham returns to action on Wednesday, March 1, as they host the George Washington University Colonials in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00 p.m.
 
Notes
Richmond now leads the all-time series, 19-7.
 
Only 22 fouls were called in the game (eleven for each side).
 
The eleven Fordham fouls was a season-low for the Rams.
 
The game was just the seventh this season in which Fordham committed more turnovers than its opponent.
 
The Rams recorded ten steals in the game, the 17th double digit steal game of the year for the Rams.
 
Senior Matt Massimino and Hawkins, who were making one of their final appearances in the Rose Hill Gym, were honored in a pregame ceremony.
 
Sengfelder finished with eight points to bring his career total to 1,029, moving him ahead of David Buckner and into 33rd on the Fordham all-time scoring list.
 
Sengfelder hit two three-pointers in the game to bring his career total to 156, tying him with Bryan Smith for ninth on the Fordham all-time list.
 
Chartouny returned to the team after missing the past week home in Montreal for a family emergency.
 
Chartouny recorded one steal to bring his school-record season total to 85 (former mark was 78).