Women's Basketball Cruises Past Savannah State, 63-53

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BRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team increased its win streak to four games after defeating Savannah State, 63-53, in the opening game of the Eighth Annual Fordham Holiday Classic inside the Rose Hill Gym Monday afternoon. With the victory, the Rams advance to Tuesday's championship contest and improve to 8-4 on the season, while the Tigers fall to 4-6 overall.

Fordham showed no signs of rust coming into the game after a 15-day layoff. The Rams connected on their first six shots and seven of eight to start the contest, with sophomore Hannah Missry knocking down back-to-back three's at the beginning. Fordham quickly led by double-digits, 12-2, less than five minutes in and would lead by double-digits almost the entire way.

Missry's third trey ball of the half stretched the lead back out to 12 at the 5:20 mark, before her fourth bomb from behind the arc produced Fordham's largest lead of the stanza, 32-17, with 1:09 left before halftime. Savannah State responded with the final five points of the first 20 minutes to slice the Ram's lead to 32-21 at the half.

The Rams finished the first half shooting 44.1 percent, but their defense was swarming, as they held the Tigers to only 24.1 percent (7-of-24) from the field.

Back-to-back layups from graduate student Tiffany Ruffin and a third bunny from senior Taryn Durant quickly increased the lead to 17 and forced a Savannah State 30-second timeout. After a bucket from the Tigers, junior Samantha Clark canned a three-pointer to give Fordham its largest lead of the game, 41-23, and capped a 9-2 run at the 17:00 mark.

But the Tigers still had some fight in them and clawed back to a 47-36 deficit, before Fordham regained control and extended its advantage back to 18 at 56-38 with 5:49 remaining and cruised to the victory.

The Rams shot better in the second half (47.8 percent) and finished the game connecting on 45.8 percent (22-of-48) of their attempts but only converted 6-of-19 from distance and 13-of-20 from the charity stripe. But the defense held Savannah State to 27.1 percent (16-of-59), as the Tigers became Fordham's third straight victim of shooting less than 30 percent. The Rams also assisted on 17 of their 22 makes and outrebounded Savannah State, 41-34.

Missry paced Fordham with 15 points, as she tied a season high in made three's with five (on nine attempts) and tied her career best in rebounds with six. Ruffin produced a terrific all-around game with a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, a team-high eight rebounds, four assists and three steals to tie a career high. Senior Emily Tapio chipped in eight points, five rebounds and a game-high five assists to tie a season high.

Preseason Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Player of the Year Ezinne Kalu led all scorers with 26 points to lead the Tigers. Tiyonda Davis added nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Rams return to action Tuesday afternoon when they look to claim the championship against undefeated Princeton, with tipoff slated for 3:30 p.m. inside the Rose Hill Gym.