Box Score Jan. 11, 2012
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa. -
For the second time in as many games, the Fordham women's basketball squad took a halftime lead but was unable to maintain it, falling to the La Salle Explorers, 68-62, in an Atlantic 10 game played at Tom Gola Arena in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
The Rams jumped out to a 6-2 lead on a pair of three-pointers in the opening 90 seconds. Abigail Corning buried the first trifecta from the top of the key, taking advantage of a Christina Gaskin screen. Gaskin then nailed a three-pointer on the next Fordham possession to make the score 6-2, at 18:26.
Uncharacteristically, the Rams committed three fouls in the first three and a half minutes of play which led to the Explorers grabbing their first lead of the game, 7-6, on a pair of Nadia Bryant foul shots at 17:28.
Fordham went into a bit of a scoring funk as La Salle pushed its advantage to 11-6. Eventually Arielle Collins ended a 4:25 scoring drought with a three-pointer to bring the Rams within two, 11-9, at 14:01. They eventually regained the lead, 14-13, on subsequent buckets from Collins and Gaskin.
La Salle took the lead back on its next possession, but Emily Tapio gave the Rams a 16-15 lead when she scored two of her career-high 11 points at 10:46. As the Explorers brought the ball up Collins stole it and took it to the hoop to extend the Fordham advantage to 18-15.
From there, Becky Peters got the hot hand as she scored on four straight possessions capping her scoring spree with a pair of free throws that gave Fordham its largest advantage of the half, 22-15, at 8:31.
La Salle got the deficit back down to as little as one, but the Rams led at the intermission, 35-30, as Fordham shot 56% in the first half.
The second half began in earnest for Fordham as they buried a pair of three-pointers, the first from Charlotte Stoddart, who nailed the trifecta off the drive and dish from Collins, and the second from Abigail Corning, who followed that up with a three on her next possession to make the score 41-30, at 18:13. The eleven-point lead was the largest of the game for Fordham.
La Salle chipped away at the lead and leaned heavily on Brittany Wilson, who scored a game-high 31 points, to do so. Wilson scored 16 straight points for the Explorers, among those was a hoop and harm that gave La Salle a 48-47 advantage at 12:17. The Explorers eventually pushed the lead to four, 54-50, at 9:55.
Fordham would respond once again as two baskets from Peters separated by a hoop from Corning turned the four point deficit into a three point lead, 57-54, at 7:49. The Rams shooting went cold from there.
With Fordham trailing 59-57, Corning hit a jumper at 5:27 that evened the score, but the bucket turned out to be the final hoop for the Rams until a Tapio jumper at 0:31. By that time, La Salle had an insurmountable lead and went on to win, 68-62.
Collins scored 14 to lead Fordham while Peters finished with 13 and Corning and Tapio chipped in with 11 apiece.
The loss drops Fordham's record to 9-8 overall, 0-2 in the Atlantic 10. The team will return to action on Saturday, January 14th as they welcome Rhode Island into the Rose Hill Gym for a 2:00 PM start.
Game Notes: The Fordham bench outscored La Salle's reserves 13-6...Emily Tapio scored a career-high 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting...The Rams won the rebounding battle, 30-25, marking the 13th time in 17 games they outrebounded their opponent...Becky Peters tied Nicole Williams for 6th in career starts (95).
