March 4, 2010
Upper Marlboro, Md. - The Fordham women's basketball team will play the the fifth-seeded St. Joseph's Hawks in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Championship on Friday. Tip off is slated for 2:30 p.m. at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. The 12th-seeded Rams and No. 5 Hawks are the second game of the opening round. Friday's contest between the fifth seeded St. Joseph's Hawks and the No. 12 Fordham Rams marks the start of the 2010 Atlantic 10 Championships.
For Fordham, it is the first appearance in the league championships since the 2005-06 season - when ironically, they faced the same opponent with the exact same seed-pairing.
It is the first appearance in the Atlantic 10 Championship during fourth year head coach Cathy Andruzzi's tenure.
St. Joseph's and Fordham have met three times during the history of Fordham in the Atlantic 10 Championships, St. Joseph's has won all three games
Fordham fans can follow the action live via FREE audio stream provided by WFUV.org. First round and quarterfinal matchups can be viewed live on www.atlantic10.org. Fans can subscribe for the cost of $7.95 per game, while A-10 All-Access subscribers can view the contests for free.
THE CHAMPIONSHIPS: The 2010 Atlantic 10 Championships will be held at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. It is the first time the women's basketball championships will be held at a neutral site. Previously, the higher seeds acted as host schools. The Championships will be held March 5-8 and the title game will be televised live on ESPN2.
The first teams receive a first round bye. These teams include #1 Xavier, #2 Dayton, #3 Temple, #4 Charlotte.
HOW WE GOT HERE: Fordham began its quest to the Atlantic 10 Championships when it got its first league win over Rhode Island on Jan. 23, 53-47. A week later, the Rams repeated their home success, and defeated La Salle, 57-47, to gain two wins in the conference.
By season's end, three teams, Rhode Island, La Salle and Fordham had identical conference records of 2-12, creating a three-way tie for the No. 12 seed in the Championship. Rhode Island earned a pair of back-to-back victories over Massachusetts (Jan. 9) and George Washington (Jan. 12). Unfortunately for Rhody, both La Salle and Fordham defeated them during the season, knocking them out of contention.
Down to La Salle and Fordham for the two-way tie, both teams had defeated each other once during the season. Both teams had lost to common opponents. The tie-breaker procedure of a coin flip was used.
On Sunday, Feb. 28, 6:30 p.m., Fordham was assigned "heads" and La Salle "tails" due to alphabetical listing. With the Atlantic 10's Associate Commissioner Debbie Richardson and Associate Director of Comm unications Melissa Kristofak, acting as the officials of the tie-breaker coin toss, Fordham won the flip, which landed heads up, just like Super Bowl XLIV, granting the Rams' a trip to Maryland.
THE ARENA: The Show Place Arena in Prince George's County, Maryland, hosts tournaments, boxing, world championship wrestling, ECHL Hockey, concerts, equestrian events and other entertainment throughout the year.
SCOUTING ST. JOSEPH'S: St. Joseph's is the No. 5 seed coming into the Championships with an overall record of 16-13 and a conference record of 9-5. In their last five games, the Hawks only lost to Massachusetts (Feb. 25), 75-62, in Amherst, Mass.
Most of their Atlantic 10 games have been close - giving SJU an average scoring margin of victory by just +2.6. They defeated Richmond by one point, 67-66 on Feb. 21, just defeated Saint Louis, 71-67 on Feb. 13, and St. Bonaventure, 57-53 (Feb. 6).
The Hawks are led by Brittany Ford who averages 10.2 points per game and a field goal percentage of .515. Although she's played 29 games, she's only started three. Mariame Djouara, who has started all 29 games, is the second leading scorer with 8.7 ppg, she has 252 total points and has a shooting percentage of .394.
Ashley Logue has been clutch at the charity stripe as she has made 41 of 51 free throws (.804). Logue is also their rebound leader with 5.2 rpg.
RAMS VS. HAWKS - THE SERIES: Friday's contest is the 33rd game in a series dating back to 1972. St. Joseph's leads the series 29-3. Fordham won their first game on Feb. 27, 1996 at home, 74-65. The Rams won once in 2003 and again in 2005.
In 2006, the Rams and Hawks played each other three times on Jan. 15 in the Bronx, Feb. 2 in Philadelphia and on March 3 in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championships. In the middle game, Fordham took an 8-point lead in the second half with 3:45 left, up two with 12 seconds left. SJU scored a buzzer-beater to foce the game into overtime, where the Hawks won 70-55.
Since the 2005-06 season, the Rams and Hawks have only met once per year in the regular season. From 1996-2006, the teams played eachother at least three times.
RAMS VS. HAWKS - IN THE POSTSEASON: Fordham and St. Joseph's seem to run into each other a lot in the Rams' postseason history in the Atlantic 10.
Coincidently, the last time Fordham was in the Atlantic 10 Championships in 2005-06, both teams were given the same seedings as this year. No. 5 St. Joseph's defeated No. 12 Fordham, 54-43.
The Hawks have a 3-0 record against the Rams in the Atlantic 10 tournament.
WHEN LAST THEY MET: Fordham and St. Jopseph's last saw eachother on Jan. 9, 2010, in the Rams' conference opener. The Hawks got the better of the Rams, 62-57 in Philadelphia.
Three Rams scored in double figures - Randall Hurst (19), Becky Peters (12) and Charlotte Stoddart (11). Stoddart started her first game against the Hawks and added eight rebound and three assists.
The Hawks got out of the gate with the early 11-6 advantage, behind six points from Ashley Logue. The Rams then put together an 8-2 run, capped by a Tiffany Stokes jumper, giving Fordham their first lead of the game at 14-13. The Rams continued to lead the game until the Hawks posted back-to-back three-pointers by Ashley Prim and Katie Kuester to sneak back ahead, 21-19, with 3:15 left in the half. The Hawks eventually took a 26-22 lead into halftime, as Brittany Ford connected for a late lay-up for Saint Joseph's.
The Hawks extended their lead at the start of the second half to six, 38-32, behind six points from Dominique Bryant. Fordham stayed right with the Hawks behind six straight points from Randall Hurst, getting the Rams within four, 42-38.
Ford then took over the scoring duties for Saint Joseph's, netting 11 straight points, to give the Hawks a 55-50 edge.
Fordham continued to claw at the Hawks, as Becky Peters hit a three-pointer to keep Fordham within four, 61-57, but the Rams could not get any closer, eventually falling by five.
FORDHAM AT THE A-10 CHAMPS: Fordham has a 3-11 record at the Atlantic 10 Championships, making it to the Quarterfinals on three times. All of the wins have come over University of Dayton. The Rams' first Atlantic 10 Championship victory was in 1997 when the the Rams were seeded fifth in the East. Fordham defeated Dayton, the #4 seed in the West, 68-65.
Fordham has met St. Joseph's in two Quarterfinal match ups. In 1997, Fordham lost to St. Joseph's 65-43 and in 2002, Fordham lost 70-48 to the Hawks.
When the conference was split, Fordham's highest seed was a #4 in the East. Fordham's last seed was at No. 12.
LAST TIME OUT: It was an eventful day at Rose Hill as Fordham played No. 5 Xavier to a competitive game in the Rams' regular-season finale. The Rams had a 32-31 lead just before the half, but were outscored in the final six minutes of play as the Musketeers, came away with a 74-59 victory.
Sunday's game also featured senior day festivities in honor of the Rams' lone senior, forward Randall Hurst, who has led the team in scoring all season. Hurst tallied eight 20-plus point performances during 2009-10. She was also the squad's rebounding leader.
Sophomore guard Becky Peters led the way for the Rams with 17 points off 5-for-12 shooting, 3-of-7 from the perimeter. Peters also recorded a season-best five steals. In addition to Peters, three other Rams scored in the double-figures, including rookie guard Arielle Collins with a season-high of 12 points, all three pointers, junior forwards Tiffany Stokes and Caitlin Shadbolt with 11 each.
In addition to Peters, the Rams' bench scored 28 points for the Rams, hitting six total 3-point goals.
Xavier's Ta'Shia Phillips led the Musketeers with 25 points, shooting 11-for-12, mostly under the basket.
The Musketeers led by six, 29-23, but a 3-ball from Peters kept the Rams' within one possession, 29-26 with 4:13 left in the half.
It was yet another 3-pointer from Collins at 1:27 that gave Fordham it's first on only lead of the half, 32-21, with just over a minute left in the first period. It was short-lived as Phillips made another of her patented layups rolled over to her by Amber Harris down low to put the Musketeers back up, 33-32.
Peters tied the score at 33 with 31 seconds left in the half, making one-of-two free throws, but a last second 3-point shot from Xavier's Katie Rutan gave the Musketeers the 36-33 advantage going into the period break.
In the final two minutes, Xavier made eight free throws to seal the deal on their 14th conference victory. Fordham could only score one in the span.
Stokes hit the 100 mark in defensive rebounds this season with her two against the Musketeers. Collins tallied four career marks with a career-best in field goals (4), 3-pointers (4), points (12) and minutes played (29). Griff surpassed five career categories in field goals (2), 3-pointers (1), points (5), assists (1), steals (3) and minutes played (23).
The Rams held the Musketeers to under their average scoring margin (+16.7), and also came closer to Xavier's point total then their opponents in the past two games. Massachusetts lost 75-41 (Feb. 20) and Charlotte lost 81-61 Feb. 24).
PUSHING FROM THE PERIMETER: It was the precision from the perimeter that kept the Rams right in the game with Xavier on Feb. 28. The Rams sank 10 3-pointers, the most they have made since the Duquesne game on Jan. 17.
Both Becky Peters and Ariel Collins were hot from the outside as the duo put up seven combined three-pointers.
Collins was 4-of-7 (.571) marking a season-best performance for the rookie guard in points and 3's.
STATS TO WATCH: Both Kristina Bell and Randall Hurst are in range of hitting two career stat marks. Bell will enter the game with 398 career-rebounds, two away from 400. Hurst has a career mark of 199 free throws made. One more will put her at 200.
Hurst is also looking at a possible 400 points this season. She currently has 398, and one layup will do the trick.
APPROACHING MILESTONES: With 22 points at La Salle, Hurst surpassed the 700-point plateau. She now sits at No. 29 with 745 career points.
Against Xavier, Becky Peters' 17 points moved her over the 600 mark as she has 604 career-points. Juniors Kyara Weekes, Tiffany Stokes and Kristina Bell, and head coach Cathy Andruzzi are either on the verge or have hit their own milestones.
In the Duquesne game, Peters reached 500 career points, becoming the 46th Ram to reach that mark, while Bell has surpassed the 400-point, 350-rebound, and 100-steal plateaus. Bell is only the 22nd Ram to get to 100 steals.
Andruzzi coached in her 100th game at Fordham on Dec. 31 against Providence College.
FORDHAM ON THE WEB: For information and statistics on the Fordham women's basketball team, as well as Fordham's other 21 varsity sports, you can check out the Fordham Athletics website at www.fordhamsports.com. For the latest on Fordham and the other Atlantic 10 schools, check out the conference's website at www.atlantic10.org. Twitter fans can also get an inside look at Fordham Athletics by becoming an @FordhamRams follower.
POSSIBLE COMING ATTRACTIONS: Quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament against the fourth-seeded Charlotte 49ers. Game time would be at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 6 at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
