Box Score Feb. 23, 2008
Box Score
Philadelphia, Pa. -
Fordham freshman guard Megan Mahoney entered the Temple game on Saturday looking like she had been in a prize fight, sporting a black eye courtesy of an inadvertent elbow in the Xavier game on Wednesday night.
Today it was the one-two punch of Temple's Lady Comfort, who scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Shanea Cotton, who scored ten points and added six rebounds and four steals, that was too much for the Rams as Fordham fell to the four-time Atlantic 10 champions, 65-46, in an Atlantic 10 contest at the Liacouras Center.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 0-27 on the season, 0-12 in the Atlantic 10, while Temple improves to 17-11, 10-2 in the conference.
After Temple jumped out to a 6-0 lead over the first 2:30, Fordham responded with eight straight points, ignited by a Kassie Humphries jumper followed by a Mahoney lay-up off a Humphries steal.
A Takita Earl jumper with 15:32 left tied the game at six and Kristina Bell put the Rams up, 8-6, a minute later with a jumper.
Temple responded with eight straight of its own to turn the Fordham lead into a 17-13 Owl advantage midway through the half.
An Annie Zopf driving lay-up with 9:52 remaining in the half cut the Fordham deficit back to two, 17-15, and the Rams would make it a two-point game, 19-17, a little over a minute later following a Mahoney steal and lay-up.
But Temple then went on a 14-3 run, led by six points from LaKeisha Eaddy, to build a 33-19 lead with just over three minutes left in the half.
A pair of Zopf free throws stopped the Temple run and, after a Jasmine Stone put back, Kristina Bell grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast, scoring on a lay-up with 1:36 remaining to make it a 12-point game, 35-23. But the Owls outscored the Rams 4-2 over the final 1:18 to take a 38-25 halftime lead.
Zopf opened the second half with a rebound and lay-up for Fordham to make it a 38-27 game 40 seconds into the period before Temple used a 6-2 run to build the lead to 15, 44-29, following a Cotton lay-up with 16:21 left.
A Mahoney driving, reverse lay-up cut the Rams' deficit back to 13, 44-31, with 15 minutes remaining but that was as close as Fordham would get as Temple would respond with an 8-3 spurt to take a commanding 52-34 lead midway through the half.
Zopf led the Rams with a game-high 16 points, shooting 6-for-10 from the field, while Mahoney added 13 points and she added four rebounds and three steals and Beth Troutt finished seven points.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, February 27th, as they host the Charlotte 49ers on Senior Night in the Rose Hill Gym beginning at 6:00 PM. The game will be followed by a Fordham Atlantic 10 men's game against La Salle.
