Box Score Jan. 8, 2011
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Bronx, N.Y. - On Saturday afternoon, the Rams welcomed the LaSalle Explorers into the Rose Hill Gymnasium to open Atlantic 10 Conference play. In the end, Fordham came away with a 69-54 triumph, marking the first time the Rams have won their conference opener since a 56-40 victory over St. Bonaventure on January 3, 2006. Fordham is now 9-8, with a 1-0 conference mark. The Explorers fall to 4-11, (0-1).
The Rams took the lead early on as Abigail Corning drained a three-pointer at 16:06 to break a 2-2 tie. About two minutes later, the Explorers took a 7-6 advantage on a pair of Ashley Gale foul shots. She scored a game-high 29 points. Fordham took over from there.
With the score knotted at 10-10 with 12:29 left, the Rams went on a 20-2 run to take a 30-12 lead at 6:15 in the first. The run was capped by a Kristina Bell jumper off a Corning feed. During the run, the Rams got baskets from Tiffany Stokes, Becky Peters and Corning, before Bell finished the run with her basket.
The lead got as large as 20 when Corning made a three-pointer with 4:07 left in the half. LaSalle closed within 16, but trailed at the half 39-23.
The second half began in earnest for the Explorers as they chipped away at 16-point Fordham cushion. They eventually got as close as eight when Gale sank a three-pointer at the 9:37 mark. But LaSalle could get no closer.
From there, Stokes made back-to-back hoops to give the Rams a 54-42 lead. Peters followed with two buckets of her own and Fordham was back on top again 58-45 with 5:39 remaining. Fordham put the game away when Peters hit a short turnaround jumper to make it 65-51 with 1:37 left.
Overall, for Fordham, Peters, Bell and Corning all had double figures in scoring, but Stokes led the team with 17. Bell had a game-high three steals to complement her 12 points. Kyara Weekes led all rebounders with 10 boards. The Rams had 14 assists and a season-low nine turnovers.
The Rams continue conference play on Wednesday, January 12 as they travel to North Carolina to play Charlotte at 7:00 p.m.
Game Notes: Fordham won it's first Atlantic 10 opener since a 56-40 win over St. Bonaventure at home on 1-3-06...Fordham committed its fewest turnovers of the season (9), the previous low was 11 (North Dakota State, 11-27-10)...Fordham won the rebounding battle 37-33...LaSalle shot 7-24 (29.2%) from behind the three-point line.
