Box Score Jan. 10, 2009
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Bronx, N.Y. - After a strongly fought first-half of play, the Fordham women's basketball team dropped their first Atlantic 10 game of the 2008-09 season to the University of Massachusetts 71-62, despite three Fordham players scoring in double-digit figures.
With the loss, Fordham falls to a 7-9 record and 0-1 in the Atlantic 10 while Massachusetts improves to an even 8-8 and 1-0 conference record.
It was a back-and-forth game from the start in a first-half that included six lead changes and eight tied scores. Massachusetts was first to put points on the board with a layup from Stefanie Geradot that was immediately responded to with a Takita Earl layup to tie the score at 2.
With 15:52 left in the first, Massachusetts pushed to their largest lead of the half with a layup by Kristina Danella to make the score 10-6. But back came the Rams as they kept the game close and even pushed forward to a five-point lead with 3:36 remaining in the first off of two free-throws by freshman Becky Peters. But by halftime, the Minutewomen were able to reclaim lead by two points with a score of 36-34.
Within the first minute of the second half, Fordham's Randal Hurst notched the game at 36-36, but that would be the closest to Massachusetts that Fordham would come for the rest of the contest. From this point, the Minutewomen went on an 8-0 run capped off by a layup by Sakera Young to make the score 44-36 with 16:59 left to play.
The Rams were then playing catch-up the entire way for the rest of the game as they were only able to cut the deficit to eight throughout the second half as the Minutewomen extended their lead to 13 with 2:01 remaining in the game with a score of 70-57. Sophomore Tiffany Stokes notched her final basket of the game to cut the lead to 11, as a layup by Takita Earl and a free throw from Becky Peters brought the Rams to within eight with 0:29 seconds left to end the Rams' scoring on a 5-0 run.
Becky Peters led all Fordham scorers with 15 points while adding six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Tiffany Stokes had a stand-out day with 11 points, four rebounds, three blocks and two assists as Randall Hurst added 11 points, five rebounds and one steal. Sophomore Alexandria Zamora also set a new career-high for most rebounds in a game. Her nine boards tops her previous career high of six at George Washington on March 1, 2008.
Massachusetts' Kristina Danella led all scorers with 24 points while contributing four rebounds, three blocks and two steals while Stefanie Gerardot added 14 points for the Minutewomen.
The Fordham women's basketball team is back in action Monday, January 12th, as the Rams head out to take on the St. Louis Billkens at Chaifetz Arena, starting at 8:00 PM.
