It certainly wasn't the first time Erin Rooney notched a win at Cowles Stadium, but the hometown hero did it again on Wednesday. In front of a raucous crowd filled with her family and friends, Rooney and her Fordham teammates downed the Canterbury Wildcats 67-55 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
 
Rooney scored eight points in her homecoming game, while Samantha Clark led the Rams with 14 points and 11 rebounds.  Abigail Corning added 11 points in the win.
 
Khadijah Gibson got the Rams on the board first in the opening quarter, converting on a layup less than a minute into the contest.  The Wildcats scored four unanswered after that, but the Rams soon went on their first streak of the game.  Four different Rams accounted for seven points over the next two minutes, taking a 9-4 lead midway through the first period.
 
Emily Tapio and Corning put up three points apiece over the quarter's closing minutes and the Rams held a 15-10 lead after one.
 
After Canterbury narrowed the lead to three on the second quarter's opening possession, the Rams rattled off nine in a row.  Corning started off the run with a jumper before Danielle Padovano poured in a pair of buckets.  Hannah Missry ended the streak with her first three-pointer of the night, putting the Rams up 12, 24-12, with just over seven minutes left in the period.
 
The Rams soon went on another tear, as baskets from Rooney, Alina Gjerkes and Mary Nwachukwu extended the run to 17-4 overall and gave Fordham a 32-16 lead with four minutes to go until the half.
 
At the intermission, Fordham led Canterbury by a score of 37-25.
 
The Canterbury offensive began to heat up at the beginning of the second half, but Clark came alive, scoring seven of the team's first nine points to keep the lead in double digits, 46-36, at the midway point of the third quarter.
 
The Rams and Wildcats traded buckets the rest of the quarter before Brianna Jordan extended the lead back to 12, 52-40, on a basket with four seconds remaining in the third.
 
The final period was a back and forth affair for the first few minutes before Canterbury began to surge.  With the Rams on top by 13, 55-42, the Wildcats went on a 13-4 run over the course of four and a half minutes, narrowing the Rams' advantage to just four. 
 
The Rams, however, answered back promptly. Coach Gaitley's squad held Canterbury scoreless over the final two and a half minutes, scoring the game's last eight points and taking the 67-55 victory.
 
The Fordham women's basketball team has one more day in New Zealand before departing on the final leg of the foreign tour to Fiji.
 
Be sure to follow the Rams' day-to-day activities at fordhamforeigntour.blogspot.com.