PHILADELPHIA. -- The Fordham women's basketball team earned a hard-fought Atlantic 10 road victory over La Salle, 70-59, Thursday night inside Tom Gola Arena. With the victory, the Rams improve to 10-5 (2-0 A10) on the season, while the Explorers see their win streak snapped at four and fall to 10-5 (1-1 A10) overall.
Fordham tied a season high in field goal percentage after shooting 52.9 percent (27-of-51) from the field, including 56.5 percent (13-of-23) in the second half. The Rams also knocked down 5-of-11 from distance, edged La Salle on the glass (40-38), and held the home team to 31.9 percent (23-of-72) shooting and 5-of-18 from behind the arc.
The visitors were in control pretty much from the opening tip. Trailing 5-4, Fordham scored 10 of the next 12 points, as junior
Samantha Clark's three-pointer put the Rams in front 14-7. Fordham ultimately went on a 16-4 run and extended its lead to 20-9 on a pair of
Tiffany Ruffin free throws at the 12:53 mark.
The Rams led by 11 on four more occasions in the opening 20 minutes, with the last time coming at 31-20 when Ruffin scored on layup with 5:26 left before halftime. But the Fordham starting point guard collected her second foul 37 seconds later and was forced to go to the bench. The Explorers took advantage and closed the half on a 10-3 spurt to cut the Rams advantage to 34-30 at the break.
Senior Emily Tapio has scored in double figures 11 times this seasonThe run stretched into the second half, and La Salle's Alicia Cropper's trey ball capped a 13-4 burst and gave the home team their second lead of the game, 36-35, with 17:15 to go. However, Fordham quickly responded with three straight layups from Clark to take the lead for good at 41-36.
The layups were the start of a 15-3 run for the Rams, who found themselves back up 11 at 50-39 after freshman
G'mrice Davis sank a pair of free throws with 10:12 remaining.
Fordham allowed the Explorers to only get as close as seven the rest of the way, which came with 9:23 left. The Rams took their largest lead of the game, 68-52, with 46 ticks to go.
Clark constructed her second double-double of the season with a season-high 18 points (8-of-12 Â fg, 2-of-3 3fg), including 13 after halftime, and a game-high 10 rebounds. Senior
Emily Tapio added 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, a career-high three blocks and a game-high two steals, while Ruffin finished with 11 points and dished out a career-high nine assists. Davis chipped in 10 points and six boards for the Rams.
Cropper and Micahya Owens each scored 11 points to pace La Salle, with Cropper grabbing a team-high eight rebounds. Siobhan Beslow added nine points and seven boards for the Explorers, who suffered their first home loss of the season.
Fordham returns to action Sunday, Jan. 11 when it travels to Olean, N.Y. to take on St. Bonaventure in a nationally-televised contest on NBC Sports Network, with tipoff scheduled for 4 p.m.
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