Women's Basketball Wraps Up Regular Season at La Salle

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (19-10, 10-5 A-10) picked up arguably its biggest victory of the season on Sunday afternoon, Senior Day, in front of a raucous Rose Hill Gym, defeating first-place Dayton, 66-52. The Rams will finish the regular season with a critical road contest at La Salle (16-11, 9-6 A-10) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Based on the result, Fordham will either be the fifth or sixth seed in the A-10 Championship, beginning this weekend.
 
Last Time Out vs. Dayton
The Rams had just dropped a heartbreaker at Davidson several days before, 52-51, in the final seconds and now had to host the Flyers, who had been at or near the top of the league all season long. Fordham responded with one of its best all-around performances of the season, leading for nearly all 40 minutes, and extending its lead down the stretch with tough defense and terrific free throw shooting. The Rams outrebounded one of the league's top rebounding teams, 36-27, the seventh-fewest boards allowed to an opponent this season, and outshot Dayton, 42.3% to 40.3%, also holding the Flyers to just 3-of-13 shooting from behind the arc. Dayton led briefly late in the second quarter on a Maddy Dennis three-pointer, but Kate Kreslina hit four consecutive free throws on the next two offensive possessions to retake the lead. After Jayla Scaife's jumper fell, Lauren Holden hit a long two-point jumper with the shot clock winding down to take the lead for good. The Rams answered every time Dayton challenged them in the third quarter, what would be a low-scoring 10-10 affair with tough defense on both ends, before the Rams took a five-point lead and brought it to double figures by closing out the contest shooting 12-of-13 from the line. Kreslina matched her career-high with 19 points and set new personal bests with 9-of-9 free throw shooting. G'mrice Davis just missed out on her seventh consecutive double-double, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds. Mary Goulding, who has started the last four contests, has grown into her role and was tenacious on the boards and for loose balls, finishing with six points, seven rebounds, and three assists, the latter two matching her career-highs.
 
Series History vs. La Salle
The Explorers hold a 34-12 all-time advantage since 1984 when the two schools played each other twice over a 30-day span. La Salle won the series' first 14 match-ups until the Rams were victorious, 73-65, in the Bronx on January 27, 1990. The first road win for Fordham came in the first A-10 meeting between the two teams, after they both entered the league for the 1995-96 season, with Fordham pulling out a close 67-65 win in Philly on January 13, 1996. The Explorers took the first two meetings under Stephanie Gaitley, both in 2012, but Fordham has rattled off four straight since then, one each season, with last year's 54-44 win in the Bronx as the most recent. Danielle Burns had a game-high 19 points in that one, while Samantha Clark double-doubled with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Danielle Padovano nearly had one of her own, finishing with 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting and eight rebounds, five on the offensive glass, plus a block anda steal over 36 minutes.
 
Scouting the Explorers
La Salle begins and ends with Amy Griffin, who is the conference's leading scorer at 19.5 points per game on 42.4% shooting from the floor. Griffin also grabs 6.3 boards per game, has dished out 77 assists, and has racked up 50 blocks and 47 steals so far while averaging 36.9 minutes per game across all 27 starts. No other Explorer averages above 10 points per game but Adreana Miller is extremely close, with 9.9 points per game. Miller is the team's main three-point threat, shooting 32% from deep. Miller has started in 24 games but appeared in all 27, while Jasmine Alston is the only other player to start every contest. Alston is the team's leading rebounding and assister with 8.8 boards per game and 189 total dimes, to go with 7.8 points and a team-leading 67 steals.  Micahya Owens averages 8.2 points and 3.2 boards mostly off the bench this year.  After that, no other Explorer has more than five points per game. Despite the top-heavy scoring, the Explorers are a very solid all-around squad. They also defeated Dayton, but on the road. The most glaring stat is blocks, with 168 as a group, ranked third in the country.
 
Gaitley Makes History
Stephanie Gaitley reached 100 wins with the Fordham program against Little Rock on November 19 and won her 116th at home against Massachusetts, 74-43, passing Kathy Mosolino ('74-'80) for the most wins in program history. Gaitley tied and passed the milestone with two typical Gaitley-inspired performances, with three-pointers and excellent defense, holding both opponents below 50 points. She has now reached 116 wins at three different schools: Fordham, Richmond, and Saint Joseph's.
 
Gaitley's 900th Game
The double overtime win over Albany on November 22 was Stephanie Gaitley's 900 career contest as a head coach. She has a 581-344 record over 31 seasons with five different schools.
 
Second-Most Wins in A-10 History
Continuing the trend of Gaitley milestones, the win over Albany was Gaitley's 157th all-time as a coach of an A-10 school (Saint Joseph's and Fordham), passing Theresa Grentz for second-most all-time. Gaitley now has 174 but needs 67 more to break Joe McKeown's all-time record of 240 that he accumulated in 17 seasons at the helm of George Washington from 1989-2008.
 
Missry Hits 1,000 Points
Senior guard Hannah Missry needed nine points entering the New Year's Day matinee at Rhode Island to reach the career milestone and, fittingly, knocked down her first three triples in the first quarter to become the 19th Ram to ever reach the mark. The Manasquan, N.J. native accomplished the feat in her 110th appearance (105th start). Since, the senior guard has moved past Carol Elser '85, Stacey Paukovitz '93, and former teammate Erin Rooney '14 and now stands 16th all-time with 1,104 career points.
 
Fordham Seniors On the Accelerated Track
Featured in a Sunday edition of the New York Times in early January, Ram seniors Danielle Burns, Hannah Missry, and Danielle Padovano's story of being the only three seniors in any program in the country to graduate in three years and currently enrolled in a Master's program as seniors, was told. Interestingly, all three are also earning the same degree -- Media Management.
 
Conference-Only
Fordham is 10-5 in conference play and sit in fifth place in the league. It's been a roller coaster ride for the Rams in league play up to this point, first matching the program's best-ever start to conference action, in any league, with six straight wins before dropping four consecutive contests, then winning three in a row at home before a last-second loss at Davidson and now a big 14-point win over then first-place Dayton on Senior Day this past Sunday. Fordham is outscoring opponents 60.1 to 54.0 (+6.1). G'mrice Davis leads the way with 15.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per game and has a double-double in all but three games - against Duquesne where she missed it by one point (9 pts, 10 reb), Dayton where she missed by one rebound, and at St. Bonaventure where she finished with just seven boards. The junior is also converting her attempts at an even 50.0% clip.  Danielle Burns, Kate Kreslina, Hannah Missry, and Lauren Holden are all chipping in between 9.1 and 7.9 points per game, as well, with Burns leading the squad with 33 assists, four more thn Asnate Fomina, who has 29 despite playing just 13.7 minutes off the bench. Hannah Missry has hit 38.4% of her A-10 three-point attempts (33-of-86) and averages 8.4 points per game, while Kate Kreslina has converted on 39.5% of her long-range attempts. During the four-game losing streak, the Rams struggled from the field, shooting 34.6% overall (74-of-214) and just 23.9% from deep (17-of-71). Fordham struggled to create, with just 9.5 assists compared to 15.5 turnovers per game but improved on that with 13 and 12, respectively, against the Bonnies. Fordham's non-Davis starters were a combined 29-of-113 (25.7%) during the slide.
 
G'mrice is Rolling
The Philly native is absolutely rolling over her past 18 games, scoring in double figures in every contest and missing out on a double-double just three times. Since a season-low four points against St. John's at home, the junior has been averaging 16.4 points and 12.6 rebounds per contest on 49.8% shooting to go with 11 blocks and 18 steals across a team-high 33.5 minutes. During the stretch, Davis collected two A-10 Player of the Week honors.
 
The Bronx is Our House
The Rams are 15-3 this season in the Bronx, as opposed to a 3-6 record on the road and 1-1 at neutral sites. They are also 7-1 at home during conference play. Fordham began this season with six straight home victories and has now a three-game and four-game home winning streak, including the latest one.
 
Iron Women
Seniors Danielle Burns, Hannah Missry, and Danielle Padovano have been three of the most durable players in program history and are near the top of the all-time games played and appearances lists. Burns has never missed a contest in her four years in the Bronx and made her 126th career appearance against the Flyers on Sunday. She had made 70 overall starts, including 47 straight, before coming off the bench the past four games. Hannah Missry is a four-year starter who has made 117 starts in 122 appearances. They are the fifth and sixth Rams, respectively, to ever make 120 appearances. Missry is second all-time in career starts behind former teammate Samantha Clark '16, who made 126 starts. The duo are two and four appearances, respectively, from passing both Anne Gregory '80 and former teammate Abigail Corning '14 for third all-time. Padovano recently played in her 118th game as a Ram against Dayton. All three are in the top-10 in career games played.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
Saint Joseph's ended the ultimate Stephanie Gaitley-inspired program streak of 38 straight wins, dating back to the end of the 2012-13 season, in which Fordham held opponents under 50 points. The Hawks defeated the Rams, 47-44, at Hagan Arena in mid-January. Coincidentally, the last time before that in which Fordham lost in such a way was also to Saint Joseph's, in the 2013 A-10 Championship game at the Barclays Center, 47-46. The Rams began a new streak last Saturday by defeating St. Bonaventure, 57-45, and have made it three straight by holding the Hawks to 39 points and UMass to 43. This season, Fordham is 10-1 in such contests, including five in conference play, plus holding Duquesne to 51 points on December 1. Overall, under Gaitley, the Rams are 49-5 in such wins.
 
Defense Part Deux
Through 29 games this season, Fordham's defense has limited opposing scoring to just 55.4 points per contest, ranking 20th in the country. Part of that is due to the Rams' stingy perimeter D that has held opponents to just 27.2% (96-for-353) shooting from beyond the arc, currently situated at 19th nationally. The Rams had been 12th in the country two weeks ago before VCU (4-of-8) and Saint Louis (10-of-20) each hit 50% of their attempts, but Fordham has held its last five opponents to just 14-of-67 shooting from deep (20.9%).
 
Three and D
Fordham is 67th in the country in three-point attempts (568) and 65th in makes (188), improvements made with a season-best 16-of-30 performance against UMass last Saturday, while playing terrific defense along the perimeter that has led to teams shooting just 27.2% from deep (19th in the nation).
 
A-10 Ranks
The Rams are back atop the league in scoring defense (55.4 pts/game), free throw percentage (75.7%), three-point defense (27.2%), and rebounding defense, holding opponents to just 33.1 boards per game. Fordham is also fourth in scoring margin (+4.1), field goal percentage (39.5%), assist/turnover ratio (0.9), three-pointers per game (6.5), and three-point shooting (33.1%). On the individual level, G'mrice Davis' 12.3 rebounds per game leads the league as does her 9.9 defensive boards. Davis' 49.1% percentage from the field ranks fourth. Hannah Missry's 2.0 triples per contest ranks fourth-most in the conference and both Kate Kreslina's and Hannah Missry's recent hot shooting has them fifth and 11th with 37.5% and 34.7% shooting, respectively, from deep.
 
Davis Boarding with the Best
G'mrice Davis has been a force on the glass this season, putting up career numbers across the board that has her near the top of Division I's rebounding lists (as of 2/21/17): Davis' 358 rebounds, 9.9 defensive rebounds per game and 12.4 rebounding average are all second in the nation. Additionally, her 19 double-doubles rank second, as well. Davis has tallied 12 or more rebounds in 16 contests and has notched double-doubles in 15 of her last 18 contests.
 
It Takes Two to... Rebound at a Historic Rate
Anne Gregory ('80) is one of the NCAA's all-time best rebounders. She is the only Ram in school history to average 10 or more rebounds over a single season and she did it all four of her years in the Bronx. Her lowest total, 12.5, came in 1979-80 during her senior year and G'mrice Davis currently trails that by .1 through 29 games. She's at the very least on pace to become just the second Ram to ever grab double figure rebounds per contest over a season. Davis' 358 rebounds currently rank fifth-most in a single season and her 7.9 career average is fourth-highest in program history.
 
Actively One of the Best from Deep
Hannah Missry has amassed 298 three-pointers in her career in the Bronx and is sixth among active players in Division I for all-time downtown makes. Missry has recently passed Suntana Granderson (Xavier '04-'07), Lisa Cermignaro (George Washington '94-'97), Amy Waugh (Xavier '00-'03), Stefanie Collins (St. Bonaventure '02-'06), and now both Cathy Jones (George Washington '00-'04) and Suzie Dailer (St. Bonaventure '92-'95) for third-most all-time in A-10 history. She needs seven more to pass Nicole Levandusky (Xavier '98-'01) for second.
 
Career-Highs for G'mrice
The junior forward is playing the most minutes of her career this season and is putting up terrific numbers. Davis has set three new career-highs in rebounds, first with 15 at #1 Notre Dame, then 17 against Texas Tech, including seven on the offensive glass, and finally 21 against Grambling State, one of the top single-game numbers in A-10 history. Following the win over Davidson, she has now set three new scoring career-highs, as well, first with 22 points against Boston College, 24 in the Battle of the Bronx, and now 27 against the Wildcats. At Iona, Davis played the entire 40 minutes for the first time in her career and matched that recently at Saint Joseph's and at home against VCU.
 
Missry For Three!
Hannah Missry tied and broke the all-time Fordham career three-point record last season against St. Bonaventure (2/24/16) with two timely second-half bombs, tying and moving past Heather Donlon (1989-93) on the all-time list. Missry finished her season with five more long-range efforts over the next three contests and began her senior campaign with 239. This year, the senior is shooting 59-of-170 from deep (34.7%) and has enjoyed some success in recent games, hitting between two and five triples in 10 of the last 16 contests. Her 2.0 per-game average is fourth in the conference.
 
41 To Go
Missry is 41 three-pointers away from breaking Jessica Jenkins' all-time Atlantic 10 record of 338 threes set at St. Bonaventure from 2009-12. The Manasquan, N.J. native is on pace to finish just behind Jenkins in either second or third.
 
Fordham's Charity
Fordham is 27th in the country thus far with a 75.7% clip from the free throw line. The Rams have spent a large portion of this season atop the A-10 leaderboards before some struggles from the line helped them slip to second. Before a season-high 23-of-29 performance from the stripe against Davidson (1/4), over the team's previous five games, the Rams were hitting just 64.7% (44-of-68) of their freebies, including a 16-for-25 mark at Rhode Island, the most attempts of the season but also just the third-most makes. The 10-of-11 shooting from the line in Olean helped the Rams again reach the summit in the league. Fordham hit 11-of-16 at Saint Joseph's but rebounded with 12-of-14 against VCU. The Rams fell back down a spot after shooting 8-of-12 against St. Bonaventure but a 15-of-17 line against the Hawks brought them back up. Against Dayton, the Rams matched their season-best 16 free throws in 20 attempts. The current 75.7% mark would be the third-best in program history.
 
Fomina Facilitating Off the Bench
Fomina leads the team with 60 dimes, despite averaging just 14.7 minutes off the bench. Her lone start came against Davidson, playing 22 minutes and assisting on five buckets. Fomina began the year with at least one assist in each of the first 10 games, including five at Iona, and enjoyed a solid stretch of between three and five dimes in six straight contests over a three-week span from mid-December to early-January. Over her last two contests the junior has four and three, respectively.
 
Kelly Provides Punch Off Pine
Freshman guard Anna Kelly started her Fordham career by scoring seven points in three of her first four games but spent the next 12 contests playing between two and 14 minutes, excluding one 19-minute cameo. Needing an injection of energy against Davidson at the beginning of January, Kelly flourished, tallying a career-high 18 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the free throw line. Kelly also tallied two rebounds, two steals, and two assists, in 27 minutes. Over her next four games, she averaged just under four points per game but, at Saint Louis and George Washington, was one of the lone bright spots over a tough period for the team, averaging 13.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, with two assists, and 8-of-15 shooting from the floor and 11-of-13 shooting from the line across 24.5 minutes.
 
Kiwis Enroll Early
Two of Fordham's Class of 2021 recruits have joined the team and have been declared eligible to practice and compete. However, the two Kiwis, Kendell Heremaia and Zara Jillings, will redshirt and sit out the remainder of this season. Natives of New Zealand, the duo's school year ended this winter and the pair enrolled early to get integrated into the program. Jillings and Heremaia have taken jersey numbers 15 and 30, respectively, for now.
 
Five Sign NLIs in 2016-17 Recruiting Class
Coach Gaitley announced this past week the additions of five student-athletes  to national letters of intent: Halei Gillis, Kendell Heremaia, Zara Jillings, Ralene Kwiatkowski, and Vilisi Tavui. Fordham's global reach under Coach Gaitley continues with two players from North Carolina, two from New Zealand, and one from Fiji. The three international players all have experience playing within their countries' junior ranks.
 
You can read all about the five additions here.
 
Rams to Host A-10 Championship First Round Game
The Atlantic 10 has implemented a new format to its annual postseason tournament, with the top two teams earning byes and the remaining 12 teams playing on the home sites of seeds three through eight this weekend, before heading to Richmond the following weekend for the remaining contests. Fordham is guaranteed to host a first round game on Sunday, February 26, at 2 p.m. There is currently no place  to online to order tickets yet but you can call the Fordham Ticket Office at 718.817.4759 for more information, which will become available over the coming week.
 
Up Next
The regular season is over and the Atlantic 10 Championship begins with its new format, with seeds three through eight hosting seeds nine through 14 in one-off contests. Fordham will host an opponent still to be determined on Sunday, February 26, at 2 p.m.