Fordham Basketball Opens 2013-14 Season with Doubleheader on Friday on SNY

Bronx, N.Y. (November 7, 2013) - The Fordham University men's and women's basketball Rams open the 2013-14 season in the historic Rose Hill Gym on Friday night, November 8, as the women host the University of San Francisco at 6:00 p.m. and the men take on Saint Francis (Pa.) University at 8:30 p.m. Both games will be televised live on SportsNet NY (SNY).
 
The game will be video streamed live on Fordhsports.com, broadcast live on WFUV and can be followed live via livestats. Follow the links below:
 
Women's Game
Watch Live
Listin Live on WFUV.org
Live Stats
Game Notes
 
Men's Game
Watch Live
Listin Live on WFUV.org
Live Stats
 
The Fordham women enter the season off of one of the most successful years in the history of the program. In just her second year at the helm, head coach Stephanie Gaitley changed the culture of the women's basketball team and guided it to its most successful season in over three decades, posting 26 wins, the second most in school history, including a 12-2 mark in the Atlantic 10. After being picked eleventh in the preseason poll, the Rams knocked off squad after squad, advancing to the Atlantic 10 championship game for the first time in team history. Fordham finished the year with four All-Atlantic 10 performers and two All-Metropolitan selections, and the team earned its first postseason berth since 1994, advancing to the round of 16 of the WNIT.
 
Leading the Rams into the 2012-13 season will be redshirt senior guard Erin Rooney, a First Team All-Atlantic 10 selection last year, who was voted to the Preseason All-Conference First Team and the Preseason All-Defensive Team, along with sophomore forward Samantha Clark, who earned a spot on the preseason third team.
 
Rooney ranked second on the team with 13.9 points per game, pulled in 5.3 boards per contest and dished out a team-best 3.7 assists per outing. She finished the season ranked seventh in the Atlantic 10 in scoring, third in free throw percentage, ninth in assists and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Clark, a 2013 Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team selection, ranked fifth on the Rams in scoring with 8.4 points per game, while pulling down the second most rebounds on the squad (6.5 per game). Clark had four double-doubles, the second most on the team, and her 2.6 blocks per game in conference play placed her third in the A-10 rankings.
 
The Fordham men will be led into the game by senior guard Branden Frazier, a Preseason Third Team All-Atlantic 10 selection, who averaged 14. 2 ppg, second best on the team, in 2012-13. He also averaged 3.7 rpg and led the Rams with 154 assists, 44 three-pointers made and 28 steals. Frazier, who averaged 12.7 ppg and 4.8 apg in Atlantic 10 play, shot 82.8% (135-163) from the free throw line and ranked third in the Atlantic 10 in assists, sixth in assist/turnover ratio (1.6), ninth in free throw shooting percentage and 13th in scoring.
 
Over his three-year career, Frazier has netted 1,077 points, good for a tie for 26^th on the Fordham all-time scoring list, and he has 141 three-pointers made, good for seventh on the school's career list. He also has 362 assists and 76 steals in 87 career games.
 
Also back for the Rams are sophomore Mandell Thomas (9.8 ppg and 3.1 rpg), junior Bryan Smith (7.9 ppg and 3.3 rpg), junior Ryan Canty (6.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg), and sophomores Travion Leonard (6.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg) and Ryan Rhoomes (3.6 ppg and 5.12 rpg).  They are joined by a freshman class that includes Brooklyn's Jon Severe, the 2013 New York State Player of the Year at Christ the King High School and Jake Fay.
 
Friday night's contest will be the fourth meeting between Fordham and Saint Francis on the hardwood. The Red Flash lead the all-time series, which started in 1958, 2-1, taking the past two meetings, including the most recent matchup, 70-64, in 1991 in an NCAA Play-In game in Loretto.