Dayton, Ohio – The Deeds Carillon is located directly across the Miami River from the UD Arena. A carillon is an instrument that consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to produce a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. If one bell doesn't sound, it throws off the entire tune. The same can be said of a basketball team. Playing without the services of leading scorer, senior guard
Will Tavares, the Rams gave it a valiant effort, trimming a 19-point second half deficit to four before falling to the Flyers, 80-70, in an Atlantic 10 contest.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 9-17 overall, 4-10 in the Atlantic 10, while Dayton improves to 12-14 overall, 6-8 in the conference.
Junior guard
Joseph Chartouny led the Rams with a career-high 28 points and he added ten rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year while junior forward
Prokop Slanina added 15 points for Fordham, shooting 7-for-15 from the field, and David Pekarek netted ten.
The Rams trailed by 19, 70-51, following a Jalen Crutcher layup with 9:16 remaining when a Chartouny layup 23 seconds later ignited a 17-2 Fordham run to pull the Rams within four, 72-68, on a
Cavit Havsa layup with 4:42 on the clock. Chartouny accounted for ten of the 17 points in the run, including both a three-pointer and a three-point play.
Fordham had a chance to get even closer but a Chartouny three with 3:34 remaining bounced out and the Rams couldn't take advantage of a Chartouny steal with 3:25 left. Dayton then scored seven straight points to take a 79-68 lead with just under a minute left.
Takeaways
Four of the first five Fordham baskets were three-pointers.
Cavit Havsa has played every minute except for two over the past six games.
Cavit Havsa is averaging 8.5 ppg and 2.6 rpg over the past six games, shooting .690 (20-29) from the field.
Havsa has also dished out 38 assists with just 14 turnovers, over that stretch.
Havsa also has 12 steals over the past six games, including five against George Mason.
Freshman guard
Peter Burquest, a native of Cincinnati who was added to the roster last week, made his first appearance.
After grabbing just three offensive rebounds on Wednesday, the Rams pulled down ten tonight.
The Rams fell for the second time in eight games this year when scoring 70 or more points.
Fordham entered the game ranked fourth in the Atlantic 10 in three-point field goal percentage but Dayton shot 50.0 percent tonight from behind the arc (9-18).
The Fordham starting lineup of Havsa-Chartouny-Raut-Slanina-Hicks was the tenth different starting lineup used by the Rams this year.
The Fordham managers defeated the Dayton managers, 59-53, on Friday night.
The Rams have not won in the UD Arena in 14 tries (the lone Fordham win in Dayton came in the first meeting in 1953.)
The game was the Flyers' 120th sellout in the UD Arena.
All 80 points scored by the Flyers were recorded by the first seven players on their numerical roster, 75 by the first five players on the numerical roster.
Dayton broadcast the game in Mandarin Chinese.
Since the Flyers visited the Rose Hill Gym the past two years,
Nemanja Zarkovic is only player on the Fordham roster to have played in the UD Arena prior to tonight.
The game was the first of back-to-back Ram-Flyer matchups as the Fordham women play Dayton on Sunday afternoon.
By the Numbers
5 – Three-pointers made by
Joseph Chartouny, tying his career-high set against George Mason on February 11.
10 – Three-pointers made by Fordham tonight, the seventh time this year the Rams have connected on ten or more threes.
28 – Points scored by
Joseph Chartouny, a career-high (previous high was 26 against Richmond last month) and the most by a Fordham player this year.
90 – Games lost by Fordham players due to injury in 2017-2018.
229 – Career steals for
Joseph Chartouny, who had two tonight, moving him into third on the Fordham career list with Jason Harris (1997-2001).
411 – Career assists for
Joseph Chartouny, who had five tonight, placing him sixth on the Fordham all-time assists list.
13,350 – Attendance tonight in a sold out UD Arena, the largest crowd to see the Rams play this year.
What's Next?
The Rams travel to Davidson, N.C., to face the Davidson College Wildcats in an Atlantic 10 matchup in Belk Arena on Wednesday, February 21, at 7:00 p.m.
Davidson leads the all-time series, 4-2.
The two teams split a pair of games last year with the Rams winning, 60-54, at Davidson on January 11 behind 17 points and nine rebounds from
Javontae Hawkins, and the Wildcats winning, 84-66, in the Rose Hill Gym on January 31.
