Women's Basketball Hosts UMBC on Friday Night to Begin 2017-18 Campaign

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham basketball fans rejoice; the 2017-18 season is here! For the women's basketball program, that means a Friday evening meeting with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, tomorrow at 5 p.m., the first game of a doubleheader with the men's program in the Rose Hill Gym. The game will be broadcast live on the A-10 Digital Network, can be heard on WFUV Sports, and followed via live stats, all at the links above.
 
2016-17 Review
Last year's Rams finished the season with a 22-12 overall record and 11-5 in conference play, good for a fifth-place final standing. Their efforts were rewarded with a WNIT bid, the program's third in the past five years under head coach Stephanie Gaitley, and Fordham, like its other two trips to the postseason tournament, made it past the first round, this time by rallying to defeat Georgetown on the road, before falling at Penn State a couple days later. Senior forward G'mrice Davis led the way, becoming just the second Ram to ever average a double-double over the course of the season, and was chosen as an Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference and All-Defensive honoree. Davis was the second player to ever earn First Team honors (Erin Rooney in both 2013 and 2014), and third to garner All-Defensive recognition (Arielle Collins in 2013 and Samantha Clark in 2016). Davis finished the campaign second in total rebounding (436), rebounding per game (12.8), defensive boards per game (10.0), and third in double-doubles (24), but is the returning leader in those categories after graduations. Davis was recently predicted to repeat both of her accomplishments for her senior campaign, and was chosen as one of 20 players in Division I to the inaugural Katrina McClain Award watch list, to be given annually to the nation's top power forward.
 
The class of 2017, Danielle Burns, Hannah Missry, and Danielle Padovano, made up some of the most durable players in Fordham history, all three rankings in the top-seven in career games played and, in Missry's case, second all-time in career starts. The trio made up 32.1% of the Fordham offense a season ago. Missry, who broke the school's all-time three-pointers made record as a junior, continued to add to her tally, finishing her career with 310, which ranks third all-time in Atlantic 10 history.
 
Coach Gaitley earned win number 116 at Fordham in a big win over Massachusetts at home last February, breaking a tie with Kathy Mosolino (1974-80) for the most wins in program history. Gaitley finished the year with 120 victories over her six seasons in the Bronx, an average of 20 per season. The 120 wins are the second-most of any of Gaitley's stops in her 32-year career as a head coach, ahead of her 116 win at Richmond (1985-91) but a ways away from her 10-year stint at Saint Joseph's (1991-2001), in which she racked up 196 wins. Gaitley has a career 584-346 record and has the second-most overall wins among active A-10 coaches, behind Saint Louis' Lisa Stone, and has the second-most wins as an Atlantic 10 coach, with 175, but is 65 behind Joe McKeown's record of 240 that he accumulated during his 17 years with George Washington from 1989 to 2008.
 
Season Preview
Davis, Lauren Holden, and Mary Goulding are the returning starters for the Rams, and are joined by senior Asnate Fomina and junior Kristen Ryan in welcoming the nine-player freshman class. Holden has appeared in 64 of a possible 65 games, making 49 starts, during her first two years with the Rams, including all 33 she was available for last year. The junior guard has career averages of 7.4 points per game, shooting 33.7% from the floor, including 32.7% from behind the arc, and has racked up 115 assists thus far. Goulding joined the starting lineup late last year and took off, tallying big double-doubles against Saint Louis in the A-10 quarterfinals and at Georgetown in the first round of the WNIT, averaing 18.0 points and 10.5 rebounds over those two contests. Goulding started the final eight games of the year and will jump right back in to begin this year. Fomina led the Rams with 64 assists last year despite averaging 14.8 minutes off the bench across 33 appearances and one start. Among the freshmen are Bre Cavanaugh, a transfer from California and former top-100 recruit, and several others with significant youth international experience, including Johanna Klug, who started and helped the Germany U20s win the European B Championship this summer, and New Zealanders Zara Jillings and Kendell Heremaia.
 
Series History
Fordham holds a slim 2-1 all-time advantage over the Retrievers, dating back to the 1994-95 season. The Rams won that one, 64-42, at home, and again, 66-57, a year later at UMBC. The two schools took a 14 year hiatus in the series before UMBC downed Fordham, 62-56, during the 2009 Fordham Holiday Classic.
 
Davis Named Preseason First Team All-Conference, All-Defensive
As mentioned above, Davis' breakout junior season saw her earn First Team All-Conference and All-Defensive honors, and the league's coaches predicted her to do so again as a senior. Read more about it by clicking here.
 
Fordham Picked to Finish Fifth in Preseason Poll
Likewise, the league's coaches also predicted an identical fifth-place finish for Fordham in the preseason poll. You can click the link above for more information.
 
Gaitley Makes History
See the 2016-17 review for more information on Gaitley's record-breaking season last year, becoming Fordham's all-time winningest head coach.
 
This Is Our House
Fordham finished the year 16-3 at home a season ago, as opposed to a 5-7 record on the road and 1-2 at neutral sites. They were also 7-1 during conference play for the second year in a row. Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 71-24 (74.7%) record at home and 66-16 (80.5%) mark over the last five seasons.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
A staple of the Gaitley-led Rams is defense, and no stat better represents that than Fordham's 49-5 record when holding opponents under 50 points. Last January, Saint Joseph's defeated the Rams, 47-44, at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia, ending a streak of 38 consecutive contests with such victories. The last time before that loss, coincidentally, was also against the Hawks, in the 2013 A-10 Championship game at the Barclays Center, 47-46. Fordham was 10-1 last year when holding opponents under 50 points. As a team, the Rams' 55.6 points per game allowed was tops in the Atlantic 10 and was top-25 in the country, as well.
 
The "Yutes"
The Rams graduated three seniors last May and saw two other players depart. The turnover means there are five returning players and an incoming group of nine freshman, only one of whom will sit out the 2017-18 season. Fordham is one of the youngest teams in the country, with 64.3% of its roster made up of freshman. An unofficial survey yielded that the Rams rank 22^nd in terms of percentage of underclassmen on the roster, and, with no sophomores and nine freshmen, rank joint-first with percentage of freshman. You can view the 2017-18 roster here.
 
Class of 2018
Gaitley and the program announced a four-person recruiting class on Thursday morning: guards Chloe Chaffin and Cat Polisano, and forwards Kaitlyn Downey and Megan Jonassen. Read more about the newest Rams here.
 
Up Next
The Rams are on the road for a pair of out-of-conference contests over the next nine days, first traveling up to Boston College for a Thursday night affair beginning at 7 p.m., and then heading up to Albany next Sunday, November 19, for a 2 p.m. clash.