Women's Basketball Grinds Out 49-44 Victory at Delaware

NEWARK, Del. -- Senior Emily Tapio scored 12 of her game-high 18 points after halftime, as the Fordham women's basketball team earned its third straight victory, 49-44, over Delaware Tuesday night inside the Bob Carpenter Center. With the victory, the Rams improve to 3-2 on the season, while the Blue Hens fall to 1-3 overall.

Fordham never led by more than five points in the second half and held Delaware scoreless over the final 3:11, after a Blue Hens' bucket trimmed the Rams lead to 45-44. Tapio then hit a jumper to increase the lead to 47-44 with 44 ticks left.

Delaware could not convert at its end, and junior Samantha Clark grabbed her team-best seventh rebound. Needing to foul, the Blue Hens were four away from putting the Rams in the one-and-one, and Tapio finally went to the line with 21 seconds left, where she missed the front end, which was Fordham's first free throw attempt of the game.

Courtni Green of Delaware fired the potential game-tying shot with nine seconds left, and senior Taryn Durant pulled down her sixth rebound and was fouled with five seconds to go. She then went to the line and knocked down both free throws to seal the victory.

Defense was the story in the contest. Despite shooting only 39.6 percent (21-of-53), the Rams held Delaware to only 34.0 percent (16-of-47), which included the Blue Hens connecting on 4-of-7 from behind the arc. Fordham also turned the ball over only nine times while forcing Delaware into 15 miscues resulting in a 13-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Rams trailed the Blue Hens, 10-7, six minutes into the contest, but a Tapio layup started a 14-4 spurt that lasted nearly eight minutes, with sophomore Hannah MIssry's three-pointer capping the run to give Fordham its largest lead of the game at 21-14 with 4:34 to go before halftime, where the visitors led, 25-21.

The Blue Hens came out after the break scoring 11 of the first 15 points and retook the lead, 32-29, with 12:49 left in the contest. But with less than 10 minutes to go, Tapio gave the Rams the lead for good at 36-34, which was also her 500th career point.

Tapio scored her 18 points on 9-of-17 shooting and dished out a game-high four assists. The Fordham bench played a pivotal role as well, outscoring Delaware's, 22-6.

Erika Brown paced the Blue Hens with 14 points, while Green added 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Hannah Jardine chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds for Delaware.

Fordham now heads to San Antonio, Texas to participate in the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic. The Rams play Incarnate Word this Friday, Nov. 28 at 1 p.m., before facing Drake at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30.