Box Score |
Highlights |
Postgame
University Park, Pa. – The Fordham women's basketball team's season ended on Sunday afternoon with a 70-51 loss at Penn State. The Rams outscored the Lady Lions, 39-37, in the second half but started out slow, scoring a season-low 12 points in the first half. With the loss, Fordham will end its season with a 22-12 overall record and 11-5 record in Atlantic 10 play. The Rams have reached the second round of the WNIT three times in the past five seasons.
"It's always tough to have your season end," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "But I will remember this team for its resiliency and the outstanding accomplishments of our three seniors."
G'mrice Davis started the game off with a quick jumper but the offense stalled after that, allowing the Lady Lions to go on a 12-0 run, prompting Gaitley to call a timeout. Penn State added five more points around another Davis jumper at the three-minute mark to lead, 17-4, after the first quarter, matching a season-low for the Rams in an opening period. The second period brought eight additional points on three baskets from freshman
Anna Kelly and one from senior
Danielle Burns, but the Lady Lions kept up their pace led by All-Big 10 First Team selection Teniya Page's 13 points in the half.
Penn State shot 48.1% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, and enjoyed a 16-6 advantage in the paint, eight points off turnovers, and 10 fastbreak points. The Rams struggled with their first half offense for the second game in a row, shooting 18.8% from the floor and missing all 10 three-point shots. However, similar to Friday, they would improve after halftime.
Fordham cut the deficit to under 20 with an 11-8 run over the first five minutes of the period. Like Friday,
Hannah Missry and
Mary Goulding teamed up for a run of threes, this time just three, although the Lady Lions kept pace, eventually regaining their lead and expanding it to 23, 55-32, by the end of the quarter. The Rams scored 20 points, though, on 4-of-13 shooting, but allowed the hosts to hit 9-of-12 from the field.
Fordham continued to battle and outscored the Lady Lions, 19-15, over the final 10 minutes, holding them to 5-of-16 shooting overall. Davis nearly tallied a double-double in the quarter alone, with seven points and eight rebounds, while Missry added two more threes, as well as one from
Asnate Fomina. Coach Gaitley opted to play her three seniors, Burns, Missry, and
Danielle Padovano, for eight minutes together before pulling them off one final time, the trio deservedly receiving a big ovation from the traveling Fordham crowd.
Davis finished with a team-high 20 points and 15 rebounds, her 24
th double-double of the year and her third 20 & 15 game. Penn State's Page led the way with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Missry chipped in 12 second-half points on 4-of-14 overall shooting, while Goulding hauled in a personal-best seven offensive rebounds and 10 total for the third straight game with double-digit boards. The New Zealand international heads into her junior season with some momentum, making nine consecutive starts to end the year and grabbing 27 offensive rebounds (out of 57) over her final seven games.
The Rams outrebounded their opponent for the 10
th straight contest, this one 43-32, with an incredible 23 coming on the offensive glass, easily a season-high. It led to 19 second-chance points, 15 coming in the second half. The team went 10-of-11 from the charity stripe, led by Davis' 8-of-9 effort, to improve its season percentage to 76.1%, third-best in program history and just .8 behind the best-ever mark. The team's seven triples gives them 221 on the year, second-most ever in a single season.
Burns and Missry finish their careers with the third and fourth-most games played in program history, with 131 and 128, respectively. Padovano is just behind in seventh with 121.
Missry made her 122
nd career start, second-most in school history, and her four three-pointers on the day give her 310 for her career and 71 for her season, making it four straight seasons with 70 or more triples, all in the top-five in Fordham history. She recently moved into second place in Atlantic 10 history for career threes. She wraps up her stint in the Bronx with 1,142 career points, 14
th in the record books.
Davis' fantastic campaign ends with 497 points and 436 rebounds, 11
th-most and fourth-most, respectively, in a single year. The junior will head into her senior season with the third-highest career rebounding rate (8.2) and just 30 points shy of joining the 1,000-point club. She remains second nationally in all of Division I in nearly every rebounding category.
Thank you for following and supporting Fordham women's basketball all season long!
