Men's Basketball Drops Regular Season Finale at La Salle

Philadelphia, Pa. – The Fordham University men's basketball squad has been hit hard by the injury bug since the season started. And that didn't change in the regular season finale as the Rams couldn't overcome the loss of leading scorer Javontae Hawkins to injury, falling to La Salle University, 66-54, in an Atlantic 10 game in Tom Gola Arena.
 
With the loss, the Rams close out the regular season with a 13-18 overall record, 7-11 in the Atlantic 10, while La Salle improves to 15-14 overall, 9-9 in the conference.
 
Sophomore guard Joseph Chartouny led Fordham with 17 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and three steals, while freshman forward Chuba Ohams netted a season-high 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.
 
In Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer's first trip back to his alma mater last winter, the Rams pulled out 56-53 win but cold shooting today made a second straight win in Gola Arena for the Rams tough to accomplish. Fordham shot 33.3 percent (17-51) from the field, though the visitor's connected on ten three-pointers.
 
The game started out slowly on offense for both squads with La Salle holding a 10-9 lead with nine minutes left in the half following a Chartouny three-pointer. The Explorers then used an 11-4 run over the next five minutes to take a 21-13 lead with 4:12 on the clock.
 
An Ohams three with 3:51 remaining made it a five-point game, 21-16, but the Explorers got their lead back to eight two minutes later, 24-16, before the Rams closed out the half with a 6-1 spurt to carve the La Salle lead to three at the break, 25-22.
 
After a Jordan Price basket bumped the La Salle lead to five, 27-22, 1:34 into the second half, Antwoine Anderson and Chartouny sandwiched three-pointers around another Explorer basket to make it a one-point game, 29-28, on Chartouny's three at the 16:40 mark.
 
Ohams answered another Price basket with a put back to keep the Fordham deficit at one, 31-30, with just over 16 minutes left but La Salle outscored the Rams 15-3 over the next 7:37 to take a 46-33 lead with 8:23 remaining.
 
La Salle would build the lead to 16 twice over the next seven minutes, the final time at 61-45 with 1:28 left. Back-to-back threes from Chartouny and Cavit Havsa pulled Fordham within ten, 61-51, with 1:07 left but that was as close as the Rams would get.
 
Christian Sengfelder finished with six points and seven rebounds for Fordham while Will Tavares added five points and three rebounds.
 
The Rams will open play at the 2017 Atlantic 10 Championships on Thursday, March 9, at a time and against an opponent to be determined. The full bracket will be released on Saturday night.
 
Notes
With Hawkins out, the Rams dressed just seven scholarship players

La Salle swept the home-and-home series with the Rams this year and now lead the all-time series, 36-17.
 
The ten three-pointers now give Fordham 255 on the year, a new single season record.
 
Chartouny's three steals brings his school-record season total to 94. He entered the game leading the NCAA in steals/game (3.37).
 
Sengfelder hit two three-pointers in the game to bring his career total to 159, the ninth best career total in school history.
 
Sengfelder's six points brings his career total to 1,036, good for 33rd on the Fordham career scoring list, one point behind Fred Christ for 32nd place.
 
Ohams' previous season-high in scoring was four, which he accomplished four times.
 
Havsa dished out a season-high six assists (previous high was four vs. Saint Louis).
 
Walk-on Thomas Sanchez hit his second collegiate three-pointer in the game.