Men's Basketball Downed by St. Bonaventure
David Pekarek leads Rams with 16 points and ten rebounds
St. Bonaventure, N.Y. – Last year, the Fordham men's basketball team faced off against St. Bonaventure at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. Perhaps that venue would have been more appropriate for this year's game as the Rams were without the services of senior guard
Will Tavares and sophomore guard
Tre Evans due to injuries. Despite being shorthanded, Fordham hung in against a team picked to finish second in the preseason poll before coming up short, 77-61, in the Reilly Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 6-10 overall, 1-3 in the Atlantic 10, while St. Bonaventure improves to 12-4 overall, 2-2 in the conference.
The Rams were led by junior guard
David Pekárek, who scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed ten rebounds for his first career double-double, while senior guard
Perris Hicks (15), junior forward
Prokop Slanina (15) and junior guard
Joseph Chartouny (10) also finished in double figures with Chartouny adding five assists and four steals.
Fordham jumped out to a 13-10 lead following a Hicks three six minutes into the game before the Bonnies used an 8-1 spurt to take an 18-14 lead four minutes later.
The Rams tied the game at 21 two minutes later on a pair of Slanina free throws and the contest would be knotted again later in the half at 29 following a pair of Chartouny charity shots with 2:52 left in the half before the home squad took a 34-31 at the break.
St. Bonaventure opened the second half with a 21-8 run to take a 55-39 lead with 11:02 on the clock and the closest the Rams would get from that point was 12, 63-51, following a Chartouny three with 5:19 remaining.
Takeaways
With the injuries to Tavares and Evans, the Rams dressed just six scholarship players tonight and nine players total.
All nine players saw action in the game.
Pekárek is the third Ram to record a double-double this year, joining Chartouny, who has two, and Slanina.
St. Bonaventure entered the game averaging 6.9 three-pointers made per game and shooting a league-best .389 from behind the arc but was limited to just three long distance shots tonight in 12 attempts (.250).
Fordham held St. Bonaventure leading scorer Jaylen Adams, who entered the contest averaging 19.4 ppg, and second leading scorer Matt Mobley, who was scoring at a 17.6 ppg clip, to ten and eight points, respectively.
The starting lineup of Chartouny-Raut-Hicks-Slanina- Pekárek was the fifth different combination for the Rams this year.
St. Bonaventure has now won five straight against the Rams and lead the all-time series, 25-15.
By the Numbers
5 – Assists for
Cavit Havsa, a season-high and one shy of his career-high.
10 – Rebounds by
David Pekárek, a career-high (former high was eight which he did three times, most recently versus St. Francis earlier this year).
10 – Three-pointers made by the Rams, the fourth time this year that Fordham has recorded ten or more three-pointers in a game.
14 – Points off turnovers for the Rams, who outscored the Bonnies 14-10 in points off miscues.
15 – Points by
Perris Hicks, tying his career-high set earlier this year against Manhattan.
16 – Points by
David Pekárek, a season-high and four shy of his career-best (previous season-high was ten which he did twice, most recently at Rutgers).
67.9 – Percentage of shots taken tonight by Fordham behind the arc (36 of 53).
209 – Career steals for
Joseph Chartouny, who had four tonight, good for fifth on the school's career steals list.
371 – Career assists for
Joseph Chartouny, who had five tonight, moving him into eighth place on the Fordham career list.
What's Next?
The Rams return to the historic Rose Hill Gym to host the Davidson College Wildcats in an Atlantic 10 contest on Sunday, January 14, at 3:00 p.m. on the NBC Sports Network.
The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 3-2.
The two schools split a pair of games last year with the Rams winning, 60-54, at Davidson and the Wildcats taking an 84-66 decision in the Rose Hill Gym.
