Women's Basketball Grinds Out 57-47 Victory Over Saint Joseph's

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BRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team is off to a 4-0 start in Atlantic 10 play for the second time in three seasons after grinding out a hard-fought 57-47 victory over Saint Joseph's inside the Rose Hill Gym Thursday night in a nationally-televised contest on CBS Sports Network. With the victory, the Rams increase their win streak to four games and improve to 12-5 (4-0 A10) on the season, while the Hawks fall to 5-11 (1-3 A10) overall.

The home team started off hot and scored nine of the first 11 points to take a 9-2 lead just a shade over four minutes into the contest. The lead would remain at seven after graduate student Tiffany Ruffin scored on a layup to make it 16-9 midway through the first half.

Saint Joseph's began to slowly crawl back into the game and eventually knotted it up, 24-24, at the 2:03 mark. Freshman Asnate Fomina's layup with 27 ticks left produced a 26-24 advantage for Fordham at the break.

The Rams connected on the just 38.5 percent (10-of-26) of their shots and made only 3-of-13 from distance over the opening 20 minutes, while the Hawks shot 40 percent (10-of-25) and made 2-of-3 from behind the arc.

Fordham started the second half like the first and captured its largest lead of the game at that point, 34-26, when sophomore Hannah Missry knocked down a jumper with 15:00 to go.

Saint Joseph's responded and sliced the Rams' lead to four on three different occasions, with the last time occurring at 38-34 with 9:28 remaining in the contest. But Fordham answered, as senior Emily Tapio scored six points in a row for the home team, before Ruffin's old-fashion three-point play produced a 47-38 lead with 6:07 left.

The Hawks then scored six unanswered and got to within three at 47-44 with 4:27 to go, but it was the closest they would come, as sophomore Danielle Burns delivered the dagger trey ball from the right corner with the shot clock winding down, which increased the Ram lead to 51-44 with 2:17 remaining in the game.

The Fordham defense took care of the rest, holding Saint Joseph's to three free throws the rest of the way, while the Rams closed out the game with nine points to win for the eighth time in their last nine games.

Fordham finished at 39.1 percent (18-of-46) from the floor and made just 4-of-16 from three-point range but did sink 17-of-22 free throws. Meanwhile, the Hawks connected at a 38-percent clip (19-of-50), missed all five of their three-point attempts in the second half to finish at 2-of-8, and made 7-of-10 from the charity stripe. The Rams also won the battle on the glass for the 13th time, 34-28.

Ruffin played all 40 minutes and led the way with 16 points, five rebounds, eight assists and two steals while turning the ball over only once. Tapio added 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, while junior Samantha Clark chipped in seven points and a game-high eight rebounds.

Ciara Andrews and Kathlee Fitzpatrick both scored 12 points for Saint Joseph's, while Sarah Fairbanks added 10 points and five boards. Natasha Cloud chipped in seven points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Hawks.

Fordham returns to action this Sunday, Jan. 18 when it welcomes VCU inside the Rose Hill Gym for a 2 p.m. tipoff.