Women's Basketball Eliminated by #21/19 George Washington, 72-60

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RICHMOND, Va. -- The Fordham women's basketball team saw its defense of the Atlantic 10 championship come to an end Saturday, as the Rams fell to #21/19 George Washington, 72-60, in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament inside the Richmond Coliseum. With the loss, Fordham falls to 20-11 on the season, while the Colonials advance to Sunday's championship game and improve to 28-3 overall.

The difference in the contest came at the free throw line, where GW outscored the Rams by 15. The Colonials made 23-of-35 freebies, while Fordham swished 8-of-14.

Trailing by two at the second media timeout in the first half, sophomore Danielle Burns knocked down a jumper to start an 8-2 spurt, as junior Samantha Clark's bucket produced a 19-15 lead at the 9:00 mark.

Fordham was unable to take advantage of multiple opportunities to extend its lead, before the Colonials started rolling with a 14-2 run to take their largest advantage of the half, 29-21, with 3:22 remaining before halftime. The Rams crept back to within four, but still trailed 33-25 at the break.

The Rams sliced the deficit to within six on three different occasions over the first 2:19 of the second half but could never get any closer. GW slowly stretched its advantage out to 56-39, its largest lead of the game at the 10:20 mark, before Fordham started to chip away to get within 12. But senior Emily Tapio fouled out with 6:38 to go, and Clark was disqualified 38 seconds later.

Despite their starting front court fouling out, the Rams fought back and crawled back to within eight at 64-56 after graduate student Tiffany Ruffin made a layup with 2:50 remaining. The Colonials then scored eight of the next 12 points to clinch the victory.

Fordham shot 38.7 percent (24-of-62) from the field, with five or six shots made with a foot on the three-point line, where the Rams finished 4-of-13 from distance. The Colonials shot nearly 54 percent in the second half to finish at 45.3 percent (24-of-53), which included just a 1-of-2 effort from behind the arc.

Both sides turned the ball over 12 times, but Fordham was outscored, 14-7, on points off turnovers. The Rams also lost the battle on the glass, 42-34, as GW held a 14-7 advantage in second-chance points.

Ruffin played all 40 minutes and flirted with a triple-double after finishing with a team highs of 14 points, eight boards and seven assists to go along with two steals. Clark added 11 points, four boards and a game-high three steals, while Tapio chipped in 11 points and four boards.

Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Jonquel Jones paced the Colonials with 16 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, while Hannah Schaible also scored 16 points and grabbed eight boards. Chakecia Miller added 11 points and four assists, and Caira Washington chipped in 10 points and eight boards.

The Rams now wait to see who they will play in the Women's National Invitational Tournament, which starts in two weeks.