Photo GalleryBRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team used a big third quarter and second half to pull away from Lafayette, 61-49, Tuesday night in the Rams' home opener inside the Rose Hill Gym. With the victory, Fordham improves to 2-1 on the season, while the Leopards fall to 0-5 overall.
For the second game in a row, senior
Samantha Clark and sophomore
G'mrice Davis both collected double-doubles. Clark led all scorers with a season-high 15 points to go along with 10 boards and a season-best three blocks. Davis added 11 points, 10 boards and three steals, and junior
Hannah Missry chipped in 11 points and four rebounds.
Sophomore
Asnate Fomina, who started her first game of the season, paced the Rams in assists for the third straight game, as she dished out five while adding a career-high five rebounds. Junior
Danielle Padovano came off the bench to tally seven points, as did freshman
Lauren Holden, whose seven points were the first of her career.
Davis had six points and five rebounds at the first media timeout in the first quarter with Fordham leading 9-2, before holding an 11-8 advantage after the first 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, a jumper from junior
Danielle Burns moved the Rams back in front by six at 16-10, but seven unanswered from the visitors produced their first lead of the game at 17-16 with 5:42 to go before halftime.
Fordham rebounded and outscored Lafayette by five the rest of the half to go into the break leading 25-21.
After halftime, the Rams inched their lead out to eight nearly halfway through the third quarter, before a three from the Leopards sliced the lead back down to five at 34-29. But a layup from Clark, a trey ball and a pair of free throws from Padovano coupled with a pair of free throws from Holden helped catapult a quarter-ending 9-0 run to increase the Fordham advantage out to 43-29 after three quarters.
Fordham would take a pair of 19-point leads in the final stanza, before cruising to the 61-49 victory.
The Rams finished the game shooting 37.7 percent (20-of-53) from the field, including 6-of-19 from distance. Fordham also made 15-of-18 from the charity stripe and doubled up the Leopards in the paint, 24-12.
The Ram defense held Lafayette to just 24.6 percent shooting (14-of-57) and 6-of-21 from downtown. The visitors did make 15-of-20 from the free throw line and won the rebounding battle, 42-39, including a 19-13 edge on the offensive glass.
Fordham returns to action this weekend when it plays a pair of games in Las Vegas, Nev. at the South Point Shootout. The Rams will play Texas Tech Friday, Nov. 27 and Syracuse Saturday, Nov. 28. Tipoff for both contests is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. eastern standard time.
