Padovano's Three Sinks Richmond in Overtime, 65-64

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BRONX, N.Y. -- Sophomore Danielle Padovano's three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left in overtime produced a thrilling 65-64 victory for the Fordham women's basketball team Sunday over Richmond inside the Rose Hill Gym. With the victory in their Atlantic 10 opener, the Rams improve to 9-5 (1-0 A10) on the season, while the Spiders fall to 8-5 (0-1 A10) overall.

Fordham faced its largest deficit of the game at 62-56 with 44 ticks remaining in the extra period, after Richmond's Janelle Hubbard make 1-of-2 free throws. But graduate student Tiffany Ruffin would start the comeback with a pair of old-fashion three-point plays in back-to-back possessions. She cut the lead to 62-59 with 30 seconds left and then to 64-62 with 23 seconds remaining after Hubbard sank a pair from the charity stripe.
 

Ruffin then fouled out when she picked up her fifth with 16 ticks to go, which sent the Spiders' Lauren Tolson to the line for two shots. She missed the first, Fordham called its final timeout, and she missed the second, allowing junior Samantha Clark to grab her career-high 14th rebound.

Fordham then dribbled up the court with a chance to either tie the game or take the lead. Senior Taryn Durant hoisted a three from the top of the key with seven seconds left that was long, but she was able to corral her own rebound and found Padovano on the right side, who took one dribble to her left and swished the eventual game winner.

After Richmond called a timeout, the Spiders completed their inbound pass to Olivia Healy, and she was able to get a decent look that fell short to give the Rams the thrilling victory.

The game would have never gone to overtime if Fordham made some free throws in regulation, where it made just 7-of-18. The Rams missed their first seven from the line and all four attempts over the opening 20 minutes. But they bounced back to make all four of their attempts in overtime to finish at 50 percent (11-of-22).

The game started with Richmond taking a 10-4 lead nine minutes in. The Spiders then went back up four at 13-9 with 9:15 remaining in the opening half, before Fordham took over. Senior Emily Tapio's layup started a 14-2 run over the next 6:15, as the Rams, who started the contest 2-of-16 from the field, made 7-of-9 shots while holding the Spiders to just 1-of-8 during the stretch. A second Tapio layup capped the run and gave Fordham a 23-15 lead with exactly three minutes to go before halftime.

The Rams eventually ended the half on a 20-7 run and connected on 10 of their 13 final shots of the stanza to go into the locker room leading 29-20.
Fordham finished the first half shooting 45.1 percent (14-of-31), held a 26-15 advantage on the glass, and turned the ball over only twice while limiting Richmond to 26.9 percent (7-of-26) from the field.

The Rams took their first double-digit lead of the game at 33-23 less than three minutes into the second half and looked like they were going to start to pull away, but the Spiders responded with five unanswered to trim the Fordham advantage to 33-28 at the 13:31 mark.

With the Rams leading by six, Ruffin completed her first three-point play of the game, which started a 7-2 spurt for the home team. Freshman G'mrice Davis ended the mini run with a jumper that gave Fordham its largest lead of the game, 43-32, with 9:39 remaining in regulation.

The Rams still led by double digits after Clark scored on a layup to extended the advantage to 48-38 with 5:18 left. Richmond then began its comeback and scored the next five points en route to a 10-2 run, as Tolson's layup made it a two-point game, 50-48, with 2:23 to go.

Tapio made 1-of-2 free throws at the 1:27 mark to increase the lead back to three, but the Spiders' Genevieve Okoro connected on a jumper to make it 51-50 with 1:07 remaining.

After Ruffin and Okoro each made two free throws for each side, the Rams still led 53-50 with 34 seconds left. Fordham then was called for a turnover in the backcourt with 27 seconds to go, but the play was reversed after the officials went to the monitor to review the play. The Rams eventually got the ball across half court, and Tapio was fouled with 22 ticks on the clock. She made the first freebie but missed the second, which gave Richmond a chance to either tie or win the game.

Hubbard got off a game-tying attempt with four seconds left for the Spiders, but Fordham was unable to collect the rebound. Instead Okoro grabbed it and scored the put-back layup with one second left to send the contest to overtime.

Richmond scored the first five points of the extra frame, before Davis drained a pair from the line to put the Rams down 59-56 with 1:42 to go. The Spiders responded with three straight to take their 62-56 lead with 44 seconds remaining, which set up the Rams' comeback.

Fordham finished the game shooting 38.8 percent (26-of-67) from the field and made only 2-of-14 from distance, with the second trey ball being the biggest of the game. The Rams turned the ball over a season-low eight times and won the battle on the glass, 50-41, including a 17-9 advantage on the offensive end.

Richmond shot 36.7 percent (22-of-60) and converted only 4-of-14 from downtown but made 16-of-22 from the free throw line. The Spiders also took very good care of the basketball with only eight turnovers as well.

Ruffin continued her stellar play for Fordham with a career-high 17 points, nine rebounds and game highs of seven assists and two steals, while Tapio added 16 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Asnate Fomina came off the bench to chip in nine points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, and Padovano finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting.

Okoro led all scorers with 21 points to go along with 13 rebounds and a game-high five blocks. Hubbard added 17 points, while Bria Powell chipped in 10 points.

The Rams return to action Thursday, Jan. 8 when it travels to Philadelphia, Pa. to take on La Salle in an Atlantic 10 contest, with tipoff slated for 7 p.m.