Box Score Feb. 21, 2009
Box Score
Pittsburgh, Pa. - Saturday's contest that pit the Fordham women's basketball team against the Duquesne Dukes was a game of returns with Kyara Weekes returning to the line up after missing one game of play and Annie Zopf returning to a hometown setting. Unfortunately, the Rams could not return to the winning way as the Rams fell to the Dukes, 65-57.
With the loss, Fordham drops to 8-19 (1-11 Atlantic 10) as the Dukes improve to 17-10 (7-5 Atlantic 10).
It was points from beyond the arc that uncharacteristically hurt the Fordham defense. Prior to the game, Fordham ranked third in the Atlantic 10 in three-point defense by keeping opponents to 28.8% shooting from three. Apparently no one told the Dukes this as they went 8-20 for 40.0% shooting from beyond the arc.
In the game, Fordham jumped out to a five point lead with 7:49 left in the first half as freshman Becky Peters knocked down nine straight Rams points to put Fordham ahead, 19-14. In that stretch, senior Randall Hurst hit seven of Fordham's first ten points.
The Dukes would not let the Rams lead stick around as Duquesne went on a 12-4 run to put the Dukes up, 26-23, with 2:10 remaining in the half. The remainder of the first-half was relatively quiet as sophomore Tiffany Stokes was the only player out of both teams to knock down a basket that put the Rams down by one entering the second half.
After half-time, Duquesne had their sights on the three-point line, scoring nine of their first 16 points from shots beyond the arc. Those treys helped the Dukes extend their lead to 42-37 with 11:44 remaining.
Four Hurst points along with a Stokes bucket helped the Rams pull the game to within two with just over nine minutes to go in the second. Kristina Bell helped keep the Rams in the game with four of her eight second half points as the Dukes took a four point edge into the final four minutes of play.
With the score at 54-50 in Duquesne favor, the Dukes used free throws and three-pointers to run past the Rams. Samantha Pollino scored six of her game leading 22 points in the final minutes to push Duke past the Rams, 65-57.
Freshman Becky Peters knocked down a team high 20 points while snagging seven rebounds and dishing out three assists. Randall Hurst bucketed 15 with eight rebounds as Kristina Bell scored eight.
Next on the schedule for Fordham is the last home game of the year as Carissa Morrill, Takita Earl, Kassie Humphries and Annie Zopf don the Fordham uniform at the Rose Hill Gym one last time on Tuesday, February 24th at 7:00 PM.
NOTES: Ties to Duquesne do not end with the proximity to the Dukes' campus as senior Annie Zopf grew up only 20 minutes away. Zopf's father, Bill Zopf, attended Duquesne and was on the men's basketball team from 1968-1970 until he was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1970 NBA draft...Becky Peters' 20 points is her second highest in a single game this year with her season high 24 points coming against Bryant...Annie Zopf knocked down one three-pointer, giving her 104 for the her career and one trey shy of seventh all-time in Fordham history...Beth Ann Dickson holds steady with that seventh place spot with 105 career three-pointers...The Fordham defense keeping the Dukes under their 70.0 points per game average marks the 21st time out of 27 games this season that the Rams have kept an opponent under their scoring average.
