Bronx, N.Y. – With the Winter Olympics getting started this week, it's a little known fact that the final individual medal of the first Winter Olympics in 1924 took 50 years to present. Norway's Thorleif Haug was awarded third place at the event's conclusion, but a clerical error in calculating Haug's score was discovered in 1974 showed that it was Anders Haugen of the United States, who had finished fourth, actually placed third. Today's winner of the Fordham-St. Bonaventure basketball game only seemed as if it took 50 years to determine a winner as the game had 23 lead changes and numerous official reviews but in the end it was the Bonnies who came out on top, defeating the Rams 70-67 in an Atlantic 10 game in the Rose Hill Gym.
With the loss, Fordham evens its record at 12-12, 3-8 in the Atlantic 10, while St. Bonaventure improves to 14-10 overall, 3-8 in the conference.
Freshman forward
Roor Akhuar, one of five Rams to score in doubles figures, led Fordham with a season-high 16 points, while grad student guard
Dejour Reaves added 12 points, four rebounds, and six assists, and redshirt freshman forward
Abass Bodija chipped in with eleven point and five boards.
How it Happened
• The Rams led by four, 67-63, with 4:51 remaining following a Reaves three but the Bonnies took advantage of an offensive rebound to hit a three of their own and make it a one-point game, 67-66 at the 3:26 mark.
• Neither team scored over the next two minutes before St. Bonaventure took advantage of a Fordham turnover to score on an alley-oop and take a 68-67 lead with 1:20 left.
• Reaves missed the front end of a one-and-one15 seconds later before the Boonies took a 70-67 lead on a jumper in the lane with 23 ticks left on the clock.
• The Rams had one last chance to tie the game but an
Akira Jacobs three at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
Notes
• The other Rams who scored in double figures were senior guard
Christian Henry and grad student guard
Louis Lesmond, who each had ten.
•
Dejour Reaves has scored in double figures in all 23 games he has appeared in this year.
•
Christian Henry had his eleventh game this year with six or more assists.
• Fordham was without sophomore center
Jack Whitbourn, who missed the game due to injury.
• The game featured two of the top three scores in the Atlantic 10 in Fordham's
Dejour Reaves (who entered the game averaging a league-high 17.6 ppg) and St. Bonaventure's Frank Mitchell (who entered the game third in the conference at 16.4 ppg).
• The game also featured the top two rebounders in the A-10 in SBU's Mitchell (who entered the game averaging 9.8 rpg) and Fordham
Rikus Schulte (who entered the game averaging 9.4 rpg).
•
Akira Jacobs had a streak of seven straight games with at least one three-pointer snapped.
• Fordham recorded 18 assists on 24 baskets.
• The Rams and the Bonnies split a pair of games this year with Fordham taking the first meeting, 81-77, at St. Bonaventure last month.
By the Numbers
6 – Assists by
Dejour Reaves, tying his career-high.
11 – Steals by Fordham, the second double figure steals game this year and the most against a Division I team.
11 – Offensive rebounds for the Rams, the fourth straight and 19th overall game Fordham has recorded double figures in offensive rebounds.
16 – Points by
Roor Akhuar, a season-high (previous high was 14 vs. Mt. St. Mary College in November.
28 – Bench points for the Rams, compared to 12 for St. Bonaventure.
What's Next?
• The Rams continue Atlantic 10 play by traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Saint Joseph's University Hawks in Hagen Arena on Tuesday, February 10, at 7:00 p.m.
• It will be the 62nd meeting between Fordham and Saint Joseph's on the hardwood.
• The Hawks lead the all-time series, which started in the 1919-20 season, 42-19, and have won ten of the past 12 over the Rams.
• Saint Joseph's won last year's matchup, 90-76, in the Rose Hill Gym on March 1 as Xzavier Brown scored a game-high 27 points for the Hawks and Rasheer Fleming added 20.
