Women's Basketball Wins Going Away at George Mason, 79-55

FAIRFAX, Va. -- The Fordham women's basketball team produced its best offensive game of the season Wednesday night and defeated George Mason, 79-55, in Atlantic 10 play inside the Patriot Center. With the victory, the Rams clinch the #4 seed in next week's conference tournament and improve to 18-10 (10-5 A10) on the season, while the Patriots fall to 13-15 (5-10 A10) overall.

The 79 points is a season high for Fordham, who shot a ridiculous 70.4 percent (19-of-27) in the second half. Overall, the Rams connected on 52.3 percent of their shots and knocked down a season-high 34 field goals (on 65 attempts). The defense also stepped up in the second half to limit George Mason to 37.3 percent (22-of-59) shooting for the contest, after the home team shot 44.0 percent (11-of-25) in the first half, including 5-of-9 from distance. The home team finished 8-of-21 from three-point range, while Fordham made just 6-of-23.

The Rams pounded the ball inside and outscored the Patriots, 44-14 (20-0 in the first half), which proved to be a big difference in the game. Fordham also forced George Mason into 16 turnovers, resulting in a 20-9 advantage in points-off-turnovers. The Rams, meanwhile, took care of the ball and gave it up just nine times, one short of season low.

Five ties and four lead changes occurred over the first 9:31 of the game. With Fordham trailing 18-14 at the 14:03 mark, graduate student Tiffany Ruffin scored on a layup to start a string of seven unanswered points, and her three-pointer gave the Rams the lead for good at 21-18. The layup triggered a 19-3 run, with sophomore Hannah Missry's triple producing the visitors' largest lead of the half, 33-21, with 5:17 to go before halftime, where they eventually lead, 37-28.

The Patriots whittled the Fordham lead down to five over the first 2:39 of the second half, before the Rams worked their advantage back out to 12 at 51-39 with 14:03 remaining in the game.

George Mason got to within nine a little over two minutes later, but Fordham took complete control of the contest over the next six minutes, increased the lead out to 70-53 with 5:40 left, and never looked back.

Junior Samantha Clark led Fordham with a career-high 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and corralled six boards. Freshman G'mrice Davis, who started her second game of the season, netted a season-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, also grabbed six rebounds, and recorded a season-best four steals. Missry added 12 points, while
Ruffin shot 5-of-6 to finish with 11 points, four boards, a game-high five assists and two steals. Senior Emily Tapio chipped in eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Taylor Brown paced the Colonials with 22 points but was held to just five after halftime. Talisha Watts added 16 points and 10 boards, while Sandra Ngoie chipped in 11 points for George Mason.

The Rams return to action this Sunday, March 1 when they host Davidson in their regular-season finale. Fordham will honor Tapio, Ruffin, Taryn Durant and Liz Milner with a Senior Day ceremony before the 2 p.m. tipoff.