Women's Basketball Rallies Late for Battle of the Bronx Win

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Bronx, N.Y. – The lead was as large as 14 in favor of Manhattan College early in the fourth quarter of the 2016 iteration of the Battle of the Bronx but the Fordham women's basketball team turned things around in a big way with a 18-6 fourth quarter run to retake the lead. The Rams held on for a 63-60 victory and improved to 8-4 (1-0 A-10) on the season, while the Jaspers fell to 4-5 (0-2 MAAC).
 
"This was a great Battle of the Bronx. Manhattan was terrific tonight and are very well-coached," head coach Stephanie Gaitley said, "I'm proud that our team stayed together and found a way to win."
 
The common cliché of 'a tale of two halves' is certainly in play tonight but with a twist; after a back-and-forth and evenly contested first half, with Fordham taking a slim 26-25 lead into halftime, the second stanza was not an even affair, instead the visiting Jaspers dominated the third period, while Fordham put together a furious late comeback over a dominant eight minute stretch.
 
Manhattan led for much of the first quarter, with Fordham taking a brief two-point lead after Danielle Burns netted a three at the 7:49 mark, before the Jaspers' Nicole Anderson answered with a layup to tie the game at four-all. Fordham shot just 1-of-8 in the opening five minutes but rebounded with a 10-7 run to end the quarter on 3-of-5 shooting. After one period of play, Burns' six points were matched by Manhattan's Kayla Grimme. Senior Danielle Padovano netted five points in the frame, finishing the game with seven, matching her season-high.
 
Junior forward G'mrice Davis scored the first and last points of the second quarter, opening the stanza with 1-of-2 shooting from the line and giving the Rams the one-point lead at the break after being left all alone streaking to the basket on a broken defensive play.  Fordham retook the lead early in the period on Burns' jumper, 17-15, and again at 19-18 after the senior guard skied up for a big offensive rebound and laid it back in. KellyAnne O'Reilly answered with a three but Davis countered with a layup to make it, 21-all. The Jaspers took a quick four-point lead but Davis brought her team back single handedly, making a tough jumper and getting fouled on the play, duly converted the freebie, and then, after a nearly three-minute scoreless drought, found herself alone in the paint on a feed from Asnate Fomina.
 
The third quarter was all Manhattan. The Jaspers, playing under first year head coach Heather Vulin, came out of the break on fire. Fordham allowed a season-high 27 points in that period as the Jaspers shot 9-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-5 from deep, and 6-of-7 from the line, committing just one turnover in the 10 minutes. Fordham shot 6-of-11 and committed just three turnovers but the Jaspers, led by Amani Tatum, racked up an 11-point lead at the end of the quarter that stretched to 14 when Julie Hoier hit a three from the corner to start the scoring in the fourth period. The Rams fought to maintain their lead in the beginning, with layups by Burns and Kate Kreslina, but following the latter's bucket with 6:33 left in the quarter, the Jaspers exploded for 23 points. Maeve Parahus' first points of the game came on a three from the wing, to spark a lighting fast 8-0 run over 50 seconds. Fordham committed two of its turnovers over the next two minutes and the Jaspers netted all three of their attempts, including a Tatum fastbreak layup off a steal.
 
Davis was able to get the Rams within three with two free throws and a layup, but Parahus hit another long-range attempt on the next possession and after Davis again converted a layup with some nice post moves, Gabby Cajou sank her three-point attempt, as well. Fomina found herself wide open in the corner for her fourth trey of the season with two minutes to play, cutting the lead to four, but Manhattan used another burst to skip ahead to a 52-41 lead with a 12-2 run in just three minutes to end the quarter. Hoier's three pushed the visitors' lead up to 14 and that was when Fordham turned things around.
 
Danielles Burns and Padovano combined for six points after Davis hit a mid-range jumper for an 8-0 run over the next three minutes. Grimme got to the line but could only hit one and the Rams converted on the other end via a Davis layup to get within five points, 56-51. On the next offensive possession, Fomina found Kreslina wide open in the corner for a swished three-pointer to cut the deficit to two. Tatum answered on the other end with an off-balance jumper but it was all Rams after that; Fordham finished the game with an 9-2 run, taking the lead after Kreslina converted a clutch three-point play, getting hacked on a baseline layup, and Davis' last bucket of the game to give her a new career-high of 23 points, eventually hitting a free throw for a final tally of 24 in 38 minutes. Davis' layup with 1:54 to play gave Fordham a 59-58 lead and the Rams would push it up to four with free throws from Davis and Lauren Holden. Tatum hit a jumper with 46 seconds to play and, after Burns hit one of her two free throws, the Jaspers had two chances at the end of regulation to tie the game but failed to do so.
 
This is the sixth straight victory for Fordham in the Battle of the Bronx series, all under Coach Gaitley, and have now evened the all-time series, 24-24.
 
Davis finished with 24 points and 18 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the season, and was named Most Outstanding Player of the game. Burns was next with 17 points on an efficient 7-of-12 from the field to go with four rebounds in 31 minutes, while Kreslina added eight points, all in the second half, while limited to just 20 minutes due to first half four trouble. Hannah Missry was held scoreless for just the 10^th time in her career, also marking the first time she's ever gone two games in a row without a make from behind the arc. Manhattan was led by Tatum's 13 points, getting 10 different players on the scoresheet compared to Fordham's six, a season-low for the Rams.
 
Fordham won the battle of the boards, 39-24, the largest margin of the season, including 12 on the offensive glass, as both teams ended up with 11 turnovers. Fordham's hot shooting in the fourth quarter (8-for-13, 61.5%) helped boost its overall shooting numbers up to 43.4% (23-for-53) on the day, besting the Jaspers' 42.0% mark (21-for-50). The Rams, a top-20 team in free throw percentage, struggled a little from the charity stripe, only knocking down 13 of 18 attempts.  Fordham scored 34 of its 63 points in the paint.
 
Fordham hosts Niagara next Thursday afternoon, December 22, at 2 p.m.