by Chuck Booth '17

PHILADELPHIA - La Salle rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the second half to take the lead with two minutes to play but could not pull out the win as Fordham came out victorious, 56-53, on Wednesday night at Gola Arena. 
 
"I thought we played really hard and I thought we played our hearts out. I have great kids and kids who could be good pieces for us on successful teams moving forward. We just clearly weren't good enough as a basketball team tonight. We just weren't good enough." head coach Dr. John Giannini said. "We missed free throws, we had costly turnovers, and we don't quite have the size to rebound the way we want."
 
The Rams Chris Sengfelder led all scorers with 16 points on the back of a 5-for-11 shooting performance. He also added eight rebounds. Ryan Rhooms had 11 rebounds for the Rams.
 
La Salle was led in scoring by Cleon Roberts and Jordan Price with 13 points apiece.
 
La Salle stated the game on a 10-2 run during the opening five minutes to lead them to a halftime lead of 27-22. Fordham countered by opening the second half with a 11-3 run to go ahead 38-32.
 
"We fought our guts out. I am proud of them. It's not their fault we aren't a little bigger, stronger, with more fire power. They worked and did everything they could to win," Giannini said. "I love them and I'm proud of them. We have Final Four type people. Our team is just not quite at that level yet."
 
In the closing moments of the game La Salle went on a 14-1 run to go up 50-47 but ended up not having enough in the tank to close out the game.
 
"They didn't quit, they kept fighting and they hit some big shots. We had some fouls when we needed stops," Giannini said. "I think the fouls really hurt us on those plays. Of course the three that (David Pekarek) made was a really big shot."

Fordham, coached by 1993 La Salle alum Jeff Neubauer, improved to 14-12 and 5-10 in the Atlantic 10.
 
The Explorers [6-20, 2-13 A-10] will be back in action this Saturday when they welcome George Mason to Gola Arena at 2:00 PM.