Women's Basketball Races Past Manhattan, 70-41

BRONX, N.Y. -- Freshman G'mrice Davis came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points and corral a game-high nine rebounds to lead the Fordham women's basketball team to a 70-41 triumph over Manhattan Sunday afternoon inside the Rose Hill Gym in the annual Battle of the Bronx contest. With the victory, the Rams increase their win streak to three games and improve to 7-4 on the season, while the Jaspers fall to 1-7 overall.

Fordham found itself down 8-6 at the 13:38 mark of the first half, before four straight points from sophomore Danielle Burns triggered a 16-0 run to put the Rams in front for good, 22-8, with 8:35 left in the opening 20 minutes. 

The two sides went back-and-forth until junior Samantha Clark found sophomore Danielle Padovano for an old-fashion three-point play with exactly one-tenth of a second remaining, which increased Fordham's advantage to 34-18 at halftime.

The Rams knocked down 54.2 percent (13-of-24) of their shots in the first half and held the Jaspers to just 30 percent (9-of-30).

Fordham kept up its play on both sides of the ball in the second half and were never threated, as it outscored Manhattan, 36-23, over the final 20 minutes, with the Rams' bench netting 25 points. Davis scored 13 of her points in the second stanza and knocked down 6-of-8 shots from the field.

The home team finished the game shooting 48.3 percent (28-of-58) despite only making 4-of-18 from behind the arc while assisting on a season-best 19 buckets. Defensively, Fordham posted a season best in field goal percentage allowed (26.7 percent, 16-of-60) and limited the Jaspers to 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) from distance, which is also a season best. The Rams won the battle on the glass, 47-33, and the bench outscored Manhattan's, 45-22.

Senior Emily Tapio added 10 points for Fordham, while junior Khadijah Gibson added a career-high nine points on 4-of-5 shooting. Padovano and Clark each chipped in seven points, with Clark pulling down eight rebounds. Graduate student Tiffany Ruffin handed out a game-best six assists.

Mikki Guiton paced the Jaspers with nine points and five rebounds.

Fordham now has 15 days off and returns to action Dec 29-30 for the Eighth Annual Fordham Holiday Classic. The Rams face Savannah State at 1 p.m. the first day, before taking on either Princeton or Hartford at 1 or 3:30 p.m. the following afternoon.