BRONX, N.Y. – Yesterday was the Lunar New Year as we enter the Year of the Fire Horse, a rare, energetic, and powerful year occurring once every 60 years. It symbolizes bravery, speed, and transformation, encouraging bold actions, and personal growth. Today is Losar, the Tibetan New Year, the most important festival in the Tibetan calendar, symbolizing renewal and the shedding of negative energy from the past year. Both those holidays can sum up the 2025-26 Fordham men's basketball squad, which is starting to show its fans just how far they've come since the beginning of the season. Tonight, the Rams rode their horse in the form of grad student guard
Dejour Reaves, who scored a game-high 24 points, to defeat Loyola University Chicago, 62-59, in an Atlantic 10 game in the historic Rose Hill Gym
With the win, Fordham's third in a row, Fordham improves to 15-12 overall, 6-8 in the Atlantic 10, while Loyola Chicago falls to 6-21 overall, 2-12 in the conference.
Reaves shot 7-for-12 from the field and a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw stripe, while also adding seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Senior guard
Christian Henry also finished in double figures for the Rams, netting ten points to go with six rebounds and four assists. Redshirt freshman
Abass Bodija led Fordham in re bounding, grabbing ten boards to go with nine points.
How it Happened
• Fordham led by 12 at the break, 33-21, as Reaves scored ten of his 24 points over the first 20 minutes.
• The Rams scored the first six points of the second half to take a 39-21 lead following a Bodija free throw two minutes into the half.
• Loyola answered with six straight of its own to make it a 12-point game, 39-27, three minutes later.
• Fordham bumped the lead back to 16, 43-27, on a pair of Reaves free throws with 13:39 remaining before the Ramblers started to chip away at the lead, getting it down to six, 50-44, with 7:23 left.
• The Rams led by nine, 55-46, two minutes later when Loyola scored eight unsewered points to make it a one-point, game, 55-54, with 2:57 remaining.
• A Reaves driving layup gave the Rams a three-point cushion a minute later and the closest the game would be from that point was the final three-point margin thanks to a Rambler buzzer-beating three.
Notes
•
Dejour Reaves has scored in double figures in all 25 games he has appeared in this year.
• Reaves recorded his sixth 20-point game of the season and the 31st in his career.
• Junior forward
Akira Jacobs was 3-for-4 from behind the arc tonight and he added six rebounds to go with the nine points.
• Fordham outrebounded Loyola, 38-32, the 20th time this year the Rams outrebounded their opponent.
• Fordham won for just the second time in 12 games this year when being outshot by the opponent.
• The Rams have won five of their last seven games.
• The all-time series between Fordham and Loyola is now tied, 3-3.
By the Numbers
1:21 – The amount of time in the game that Loyola led.
10 – Rebounds for
Abass Bodija, his third double digit rebound game of the year.
10 – Offensive rebounds for the Rams, the 20th game this year where the Rams had double-digit offensive rebounds.
14 – Turnovers forced by Fordham.
+16 –
Marcus Greene's +/- in 12 minutes of play.
17.4 –
Dejour Reaves scoring average in 2025-26, tops in the Atlantic 10.
59 – Points scored by Loyola, a season-low for an Atlantic 10 opponent for the Rams.
723 – All-time wins in the Rose Hill Gym for Fordham.
1,592 – All-time wins for the Rams.
What's Next?
• The Rams continue Atlantic 10 play by remaining in the historic Rose Hill Gym to host the Davidson College Wildcats on Saturday, February 21, at 2:00 p.m.
• It will be the 24th meeting between Fordham and Davidson on the hardwood.
• The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 19-4, including a 68-63 win at Davidson earlier this year on Jan. 21 as Josh Scovens scored 19 points for the Wildcats while
Dejour Reaves led all scorers in the game with 22.
