Women's Basketball Downed by Dayton, 59-45

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BRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team was defeated by Dayton, 59-45, Wednesday night in Atlantic 10 action inside the Rose Hill Gym. With the loss, the Rams fall to 17-9 (9-4 A10) on the season, while the Flyers improve to 20-5 (11-2 A10) overall.

Fordham trailed 13-9 after a Dayton basket at the 6:46 mark of the opening half but tied it on sophomore Hannah Missry's four-point play. Senior Emily Tapio scored the next three points to cap a 7-0 spurt, which gave the Rams a 16-13 lead.

However, Fordham would go scoreless over the final 4:51 of the half, and the Flyers took advantage by scoring the last 10 points of the stanza to take a 23-16 halftime lead.

The visitors increased the run to 14-0 after scoring four quick points to begin the second half to stretch their advantage out to 27-16 with 18:48 to go.

The Rams chipped the lead back down to seven at 29-22, before Dayton responded with an 8-1 flurry to go in front 37-23 with 10:52 remaining.

Six straight Fordham points sliced the deficit back down to eight, but a 9-1 Flyer run produced the visitors' largest lead of contest, 46-30, with 4:04 left.

The Rams were not finished and fought back with a 10-2 spurt and were able to get within eight at 48-40 with a shade under two minutes to go, but it was not enough, as Dayton hit 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.

Both sides combined for 44 turnovers, with Fordham forcing 24 Flyer miscues. But Dayton was able to take advantage of the Rams' mistakes, outscoring them 21-10 on points off turnovers. Dayton also won the battle on the glass, 42-36.

Fordham had trouble scoring from the field all game long, shooting 26.4 percent (14-of-53), including just 2-of-17 from behind the arc, but did make 15-of-22 free throws.

The defense held the conference's top-scoring team to nearly 17 points below their season average while keeping them at their shooting average of 43.8 percent (21-of-48). Dayton did shoot 52.2 percent in the second half, however, and the conference's top three-point shooting team converted 4-of-7 from distance while knocking down just 13-of-23 from the charity stripe.

Graduate student Tiffany Ruffin led the Rams with a career-high 19 points (7-of-8 FT) to go along with three boards, three assists and two steals. Tapio added nine points and tied a career high in steals with nine, while junior Samantha Clark grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds.

Four players scored 10 points for the Flyers, and Andrea Hoover, who came into the contest averaging 18.8 points per game (second most in the conference), led Dayton with 12 points and a game-high five assists. Ally Malott added 10 points, 13 boards, four steals and two blocks for the visitors.

Fordham returns to action this Saturday, Feb. 21 when it travels to Washington D.C. to take on #24/#23 George Washington, with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m.