Women's Basketball Uses Big Run to Put Away La Salle, 54-44

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BRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team used a strong second second-half surge to defeat La Salle, 54-44, Saturday in Atlantic 10 action inside the Rose Hill Gym. With the victory, the Rams improve to 12-13 (7-5 A10) on the season, while the Explorers fall to 4-21 (1-11 A10) overall.

Saturday was also the Rams' Play 4Kay game, which is played throughout college basketball for breast cancer awareness. In support of the cause, the team donned pink uniforms.

Three players scored in double figures for Fordham, with junior Danielle Burns leading the way with 19 points and seven rebounds. Senior Samantha Clark collected her 11th double-double of the season with 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with three assists and three blocks while playing all 40 minutes. Junior Danielle Padovano stepped up as well in a rare starting role, as she nearly recorded her first career double-double with a season-high 10 points, a career-high eight rebounds, a career-best three assists and two steals over a career-high 36 minutes of play.

The Rams led by as six in the opening stanza, before leading 12-10 after the first 10 minutes of play. Six straight points from the Rams to start the second quarter opened up an eight-point advantage at 18-10. After the visitors sliced the deficit to five, an old-fashion three-point play from Burns navigated the lead back out to eight, 25-17, at the 3:41 mark.

La Salle then made a move and scored the final 10 points of the half to go into the break leading 27-25.

The lead switched four times to begin the third quarter, before the Explorers took their largest lead of the contest, 33-30. However, it was all Fordham after that, as a three-point play from Clark triggered 11 unanswered for the home team, which was capped by back-to-back triples from junior Hannah Missry and Burns.

The run eventually stretched into an 18-2 spurt, with a layup from Clark producing a 48-35 lead with 5:23 left in the game. The Rams were never threated after and cruised to the 10-point victory.

The defensive effort in the second half helped Fordham limit La Salle to just 17 points after the break, and it was also the first victory of the season for the Rams when they were trailing at halftime. Overall, Fordham held the Explorers to 30.5 percent shooting, including 7-of-27 in the second half, while forcing 16 turnovers.

The Rams finished the game shooting 36.7 percent (22-of-60), including 6-of-18 from distance, and won the rebounding battle, 41-38.

Fordham returns to action Wednesday, Feb. 17 when it travels to Richmond, Va. to take on Richmond at 7 p.m.