SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- It was a tale of two halves Wednesday night for the Fordham women's basketball team, who dropped a 66-54 decision to Seton Hall inside Walsh Gymnasium. With the loss, the Rams fall to 3-5 on the season, while the Pirates improve to 8-1 overall.
Fordham led 34-27 at the break and stretched its lead to 39-31 with 7:07 left to go in the third when freshman
Lauren Holden drilled a three-pointer from the right wing. But after that, the tides of the game changed, as Seton Hall grabbed control with a 17-2 run over the next five-plus minutes resulting in a 48-41 advantage.
Sophomore
Aaliyah Jones temporarily stopped the bleeding when she knocked down a three to put the Rams down 48-44 heading into the final quarter.
Fordham, however, would not march any closer, as two quick layups from the Pirates' Shakena Richardson increased the lead back out to eight, before a three from Aleesha Powell set the Rams down even more at 59-46 with exactly six minutes to go.
Two free throws from
Samantha Clark crept the Rams back to within seven at 61-54 with 2:09 remaining, but it was not nearly enough.
Fordham connected on 12-of-24 field goals in the first half, including a sizzling 6-of-7 from distance, which helped the Rams control the opening 20 minutes. Fordham led the entire first quarter with the exception of a pair of ties at 7-7 and 14-14, and a buzzer-beating three from junior
Hannah Missry produced a 17-14 lead after 10 minutes.
Seton Hall scored the first four points of the second stanza to take its first lead of the game at 18-17, but five straight points from Clark triggered a 9-2 spurt that regained the lead at 26-20. After the Pirates crawled back to within two, junior
Danielle Padovano knocked down a three, before Missry connected on her third trifecta of the half and a pair of free throws, which produced Fordham's largest lead of the game, 34-25, with a minute remaining before halftime.
Fordham shot only 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the second half and only 3-of-8 from downtown to finish the game at 38.0 percent (19-of-50) and 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from three-point range. The Pirates knocked down 50 percent (15-of-30) over the final 20 minutes to finish at 48.2 percent (27-of-56) and 4-of-15 from three.
The biggest difference in the game was turnovers, as the Rams turned it over 20 times compared to just 10 for Seton Hall, who outscored Fordham, 26-10, in points-off-turnovers. The home team also had a commanding 40-14 advantage in points in the paint and won the battle on the glass, 33-29.
Clark paced the Rams with a season-high 19 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds to share honors with sophomore
G'mrice Davis. Missry finished with 11 points (all in the first half), and Jones tallied eight points to tie a career best along with a career-high three steals.
Powell led all scorers with 26 points and recorded a game-high four steals, while Richardson added 18 points, a game-high four assists and three steals. Fordham limited leading scorer Tabitha Richardson-Smith to only 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting.
The Rams return to action this Saturday, Dec. 12 when they return to the Rose Hill Gym to host former Atlantic 10 rival Temple at 2 p.m.
