Men's Basketball Falls to La Salle, 73-60

Bronx, N.Y. – Will Rogers, a man who wore many hats including actor, humorist, ands newspaper columnist, was well known for his timeless quotes. One that would apply to today's Fordham University men's basketball game would be "If you find yourself in a hole, quit digging." For the fourth straight game, the Rams dug a deep first half hole and, while they were able to stop digging in the second half, they couldn't quite escape the hole, falling to La Salle University, 73-60, in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 9-19 overall, 4-12 in the Atlantic 10, while La Salle improves to 12-17 overall, 6-10 in the conference.
 
Senior guard Will Tavares led the Rams with a team-high 19 points, shooting 7-for-12 from the field, and he added six rebounds, while junior forward Prokop Slanina added 16 points and sophomore guard Cavit Havsa chipped in with a career-high 13 points.
 
Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer has many fond memories of La Salle basketball, playing for the Explorers from 1989-1993, leading the Explorers to an 83-36 record over that time with an NCAA tournament berth in his freshman year. Bobby Johnson, who was a senior on the 1989-1990 squad, was an integral part of that La Salle team and tonight it was his son, B.J. Johnson, who was an integral part of the game, scoring a game-high 23 points, shooting 8-for-11 from the field, and adding nine rebounds.
 
The Rams got off to a slow start, trailing by 12, 22-10, 8:40 into the game before a Joseph Chartouny layup and Havsa three cut the La Salle lead to seven, 22-15, with 8:52 left in the half. But the Explorers outscored the Rams 18-4 over the final eight minutes to take a 40-19 lead at the break.
 
La Salle would build the lead to as many as 25, 49-24, 3:18 into the second half before the Ram offense got on track, using an 18-7 run to turn a 53-33 deficit into a nine-point deficit, 60-51, following a Tavares layup with 6:04 remaining but that was as close as Fordham would get. Tavares led the Fordham run with nine points.
 
Takeaways
Will Tavares has scored in double figures in 20 of his 25 games this year.
 
Tavares continues to do most of his damage in the second half of games, netting 16 of his 19 points in the second half today (on the season he is averaging 9.1 ppg compared to 4.6 in the first half).
 
Cavit Havsa has played all but 16 minutes over the past eight games.
 

Havsa is averaging 9.3 ppg and 2.1 rpg over the past eight games, shooting .638 (30-47) over that stretch.
 
Joseph Chartouny had four steals today and has at least on steal in all but one game this year.
 
The Rams committed just nine turnovers today, compared to 13 for La Salle, the 16th time this year that Fordham has committed fewer turnovers than its opponent (the Rams are 7-9 in such games).
 
The Explorers have won the last four meetings and now lead the all-time series, 38-17.
 
By the Numbers
13 – Points scored by Cavit Havsa, a career-high (previous high was 12 which he accomplished twice, most recently against Saint Joseph's on February 14).
 
88 – Steals on the year for Joseph Chartouny, six shy of his school record of 94 set last year.
 
99 – Games lost by Fordham players due to injury in 2017-2018.
 
238 – Career steals for Joseph Chartouny, who had four today, good for third place on the Fordham career list with Jason Harris (1997-2001).
 
420 – Career assists for Joseph Chartouny, who had six today, moving him ahead of Dave Maxwell (1979-1983) and into fifth on the Fordham all-time assists list.
 
952 – Career points for Joseph Chartouny.
 
What's Next?
The Rams travel to Washington, D.C., to face the George Washington University Colonials in an Atlantic 10 matchup on Wednesday, February 28, at 7:00 p.m.
 
George Washington leads the all-time series, 25-6.
 
The Colonials have taken the past six meetings, including a 67-66 win in the Rose Hill Gym last year on March 1 as Tyler Cavanaugh hit three free throws with under a second remaining to finish with 20 points and ten rebounds for George Washington while Joseph Chartouny scored 20 for the Rams.