Women's Basketball Wins 11th Annual Holiday Classic with 70-62 Defeat of UC Davis

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team  secured the 11^th annual Holiday Classic, the third tournament win in program history, with a tense 70-62 victory over UC Davis on Thursday afternoon. The Rams wrap up their nonconference slate with a 9-4 record, while the Agges fall to 10-3 on the year.
 
Lauren Holden, Bre Cavanaugh, and G'mrice Davis were all named to the All-Tournament team, while Davis was named the Holiday Classic's MVP.
 
"I'm really proud of the team to overcome injuries this season – we've dealt with some tough losses and our most difficult out-of-conference schedule and finished with a 9-4 record," Head coach Stephanie Gaitley said, "UC Davis is a really good team. It's important to use this momentum as we head into A-10 play."
 
The Aggies got off to a hot start, leading 10-2 and eventually 17-10 at the end of the first quarter, while the hosts shot just 5-of-16 from the floor (31.3%) with three turnovers. Holden's jumper tied the game up at two-apiece but UC Davis led the rest of the frame and all the way until the 4:35 mark of the second quarter. Fordham used the break between periods to regroup and came out swinging.
 
Fordham used a 12-4 run to take its first lead of the game on a Cavanaugh jumper. The redshirt freshman got the run and the period started with an and-one play and, after the two schools traded baskets, the Rams scored nine unanswered points to take a three-point lead, 24-21, with just under four minutes to play. Fordham took a 28-25 lead into the half after Davis' buzzer-beating jumper gave the home team a three-point cushion to work with.
 
The Aggies briefly retook the lead for the last time, 29-28, with four unanswered points to begin the second half, but Davis' hard-fought layup poached the lead back, the last time UC Davis would hold it despite two more ties the rest of the way. Davis' layup fell on the next possession and Holden canned an important three to take a four-point lead. The Aggies would score four quick points in a minute to tie the game up, 33-33, but another Holden three kickstarted an eventual 11-2 run that stretched into the start of the fourth quarter where the Rams led, 44-35.
 
After three quarters of stop-and-start action, with a 42-35 score, the fourth quarter packed plenty of fireworks. Fordham barely outscored its foe, 28-27, in the final frame, which was enough given the lead they maintained heading into that final period. It was back-and-forth offensive drama for the entire 10 minutes. UC Davis chipped away and used a 16-7 run over just five minutes to tie the game back up, 51-51, with Rachel Nagel, the Aggies' representative on the All-Tournament team leading the way with six points and four others contributing two-three points. Coming out of the media timeout, the Rams were quick to re-establish their lead and push it up to withstand what UC Davis had just thrown at them.
 
Davis' layup provided the go-ahead buck out of the break as Cierra Hall could hit just one of her two free throws on the next trip down the court. Cavanaugh came alive, scoring 15 of her career-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a jumper late in the shot clock and then, after over a minute of inaction, draining a clutch three-pointer to push the lead up to six, 58-52. Hall was fouled on the other end and hit both of her freebies, but Davis found Klug on the other side with a nice feed and the freshman laid it in. Cavanaugh was at it again, providing arguably the biggest basket of the night with a falling-away three-pointer in the far corner in front of the Fordham bench, getting fouled as her shot dropped, sparking a raucous reaction from the home crowd and bench. The Allamuchy, N.J. native hit her free throw and then one of two a possession later after the Rams came up with a steal, giving Fordham its largest lead, 65-54, with 1:38 to play.
 
The Aggies could get just within eight over those final two minutes, with Klug hitting a pair of free throws and Cavanaugh hitting one more with 25 seconds on the clock. UC Davis got the final say with a Pele Giannotti three to get within single digits in the final seconds.
 
Cavanaugh led the way with her career-best 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting, four rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals over 40 minutes. Davis and Holden also played the full 40 minutes, with the former tallying another big double-double of 19 points, on 9-of-14 shooting, and 13 rebounds, and the latter hitting 6-of-16 shots for 15 points. Klug made it back-to-back double-digit performances with 12 points but also added a team-high four assists plus a block. Zara Jillings also chipped in four boards, two assists, a block and a steal across 34 minutes off the bench.
 
The Rams wrap up their nonconference schedule with a 9-4 record and have a very quick turnaround as Atlantic 10 action begins in earnest on Sunday afternoon in the Rose Hill Gym. George Washington arrives in the Bronx for a 2 p.m. tip to round out the current five-game homestand.