Fordham Basketball: The Young Rams Are Put to the Test, and They Respond

Fordham won its second game in a row Wednesday night, a 68-58 overtime victory over Monmouth in front of a sparse crowd of 1,130 at the Rose Hill Gym.

A three-pointer from Monmouth's Collin Stewart as time expired in regulation tied the game, 52-52, and forced the extra session.

But after the Hawks scored first, Fordham responded, outscoring them 16-4 the rest of the way to improve to 3-4 on the young season.

"It's a good win," Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said when he met with the media following the game. "There weren't many people in this building who thought we were going to win in overtime because all the momentum was going their way. I think we showed a lot of grit and toughness in continuing to compete and make the plays we needed to make."

The win is the most important story, but who can forget the drama in how it all played out?

After Monmouth scored the first basket of the game, the Rams responded with an 11-0 run. They put together a solid first half—their best 20 minutes of basketball of the season—and led 31-22 at the break.

In the second half, the Hawks made one run after another. Fordham led by nine, 50-41, with four minutes, 15 seconds to go. But the Hawks would go on an 8-2 run before the unthinkable happened with Monmouth down by three.

Originally, there were 0.9 seconds on the clock when officials gave a timeout to Monmouth though it was unclear who actually called for time. After a conference, 2.5 seconds were put back on the clock, setting up a dramatic end to regulation.

Fordham's philosophy, shared by coaches throughout the country, is to foul to prevent the opponent from getting off a three-pointer that could tie the game. Off the inbounds pass, Christian Sengfelder was unable to foul Stewart, who slipped past him, took a couple of dribbles and connected on the game-tying shot from beyond the arc.

"Crazy last few seconds," Pecora said. [Christian] doesn't foul hard enough. The good thing out of that is he'll never make that mistake again."

In overtime, Monmouth scored first before a three-pointer by Eric Paschall got the Rams going. Fordham was 9-of-11 from the free-throw line in the extra session, a significant development after it shot 40 percent from the line in the first half and 50 percent from the line in the second half. Down the stretch, it struggled at the line, with Antwoine Anderson missing three key free throws late.

Pecora said that practice doesn't end until the Rams shoot 80 percent from the line. They shot 59.3 percent overall from the charity stripe Wednesday night.

"We shot 60 [percent] today [from the free-throw line]. That was a difference-maker," Pecora said.

"When you're a young team, you're trying to teach them how to smell blood and put teams away. We're still working on that."

Sengfelder finished with a team-high 21 points. He added 11 rebounds, five on the offensive end. He'll remember the play he didn't make at the end of regulation and a couple other mistakes he pointed out after the game, but overall, he had a solid game. Not bad for a freshman who admitted that he was going through what all freshmen in the country go through this early in their college careers.

"I had a pretty good game, but in the end, keeping my composure was tough," Sengfelder admitted. "Even though I had a good game on the stat sheet, I almost lost it. It was tough to stay composed, especially when the game was on the line. I fought back in overtime.

"I have to get used to it. I need to adjust a little bit more."

Monmouth is by no means a pushover. The Hawks entered the game with a 4-4 record, coming off two straight wins against MAAC opponents—Marist and Iona. Their losses came against West Virginia, Towson, Maryland and SMU.

Meanwhile, the Rams hadn't played since their win nine days ago over Siena. That win was big, as it came on the heels of two horrible home losses—first to UMass Lowell then six days later to Maryland Eastern Shore. 

None of Fordham's games this year will be easy, but the next two present some intriguing challenges. On Sunday, Fordham will play St. John's at Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm are hot. Last Saturday, they beat Syracuse, 69-57, at the Carrier Dome, a win that earned them the No. 24 ranking in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. Last night, St. John's beat Fairleigh Dickinson, 74-52, to improve to 7-1 on the year.

Last December, the Red Storm crushed Fordham, 104-58. This St. John's team is better than the one the Rams saw last year.

Eight days after that one, Fordham will take on Manhattan at the Barclays Center. The Jaspers are 2-5, but that, too, is a rivalry game—one Manhattan will definitely want to get after the Rams beat them on their home turf a year ago.

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. Before the Siena game, Fordham was sinking. Now, the Rams are swimming.

"I’m excited about this group," Pecora said. "It's a good blend of veterans and young guys."

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello