Dayton Hands Women's Basketball First Conference Loss in 63-62 Slugfest

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Bronx, N.Y. – The meeting of two of the Atlantic 10's three remaining unbeaten teams in the early portion of the conference slate did not disappoint, with Dayton eking out a 63-62 road win at the Rose Hill Gymnasium on Wednesday night in a fight that went down to the absolute final whistle. With the loss, their first since December 20 against #11/12 UCLA, a span of seven games, the Rams fall to 14-5 overall and 5-1 in conference play, while the Flyers improve to 13-4 and 6-0, respectively, joining Duquesne (5-0) as the last two unbeaten schools in the league.
 
"This was a tough loss, but I'm proud of the effort," Head coach Stephanie Gaitley said, "If we can sustain that effort then we will win a lot of games."
 
Redshirt freshman Bre Cavanaugh and G'mrice Davis combined for 50 of Fordham's 62 points, with Cavanaugh going off for a season-high 34 points, the second-highest total and sixth-ever 30-point performance by a freshman in school history. The 34 points are seventh-most in a single game, tied with Jeanine Radice against Bucknell in 1987. The last time a Ram scored 34 or more points was Lisa Carrol against Yale in December 2006. Davis tallied her eighth straight double-double, finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds, plus a game-high three steals.
 
The Flyers shot 8-of-12 in the opening period and led for almost exactly nine minutes of the frame, pushing their lead up as much as eight, 10-2, early on, but Cavanaugh caught fire and matched them step for step and eventually helped Fordham take the lead with seconds to go. After the visitors jumped out to that lead, Cavanaugh scored 13 of her team's 20 points the rest of the way, including threes on back-to-back possessions with under 40 seconds left in the frame. Davis added a pair of baskets and Lauren Holden chipped in a wide-open three, as well.
 
The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair that tilted in Dayton's favor at the end, with Jayla Scaife's three falling in with 1:43 to play and JaVonna Layfield hitting a layup with a minute to go, the last two buckets of the half, giving the Flyers a 33-31 halftime lead.
 
Dayton pushed the lead to six, 39-33, with a 6-2 run, but Fordham answered with 10 unanswered points, first with a Johanna Klug layup off a nice feed from Davis down low, then a Davis and-one, and finally a Mary Goulding hook shot to retake the lead, 40-39. The Rams would hold the lead all the way until the final three minutes.
 
Fordham led by as much as seven after a pair of Cavanaugh free throws at the 9:40 mark of the fourth quarter. From that point on, the Flyers outscored the Rams, 16-8, over the next seven minutes to take the lead once again. Down three with 1:36 to play, however, Cavanaugh was fouled behind the arc and sent to the line where she converted all three attempts to tie the game back up at 62-62. After several misfires from both teams, Jayla Scaife was able to put Dayton up for good with one of two free throws with 27 seconds left.
 
After a Fordham turnover, JaVonna Layfield, who had scored 11 of those 16 points, missed both of her free throws to give the Rams one more possession with about 17 seconds to play. However, Cavanaugh's last-second three just rimmed out. It wasn't over just yet, as both Zara Jillings and Tiaera Phillips came up with the rebound and, after a lengthy video review, the referees put 0.2 seconds on the clock. Off the inbounds pass, Davis' tip-in from near the free throw line just missed dropping in to give Fordham its first conference loss.
 
Cavanaugh's 34 points came on 10-of-19 shooting, 4-of-11 from behind the arc, and 10-of-11 shooting from the charity stripe, and chipped in six rebounds and a steal over 40 minutes, the sixth straight game she has gone the distance. Davis shot just 6-of-17 from the floor but 4-of-5 from the line for her 16 points. Holden tied Dayton's Alex Harris for a game-high four assists and added six points across her 40 minutes. Goulding returned from an injury layoff for four points and two boards in 24 minutes before fouling out.
 
Fordham entered the fourth quarter outshooting Dayton, 40.4% to 38.0%, but shot just 2-of-11 in the final period while the Flyers converted half of their 12 attempts. Dayton also won the battle of the boards, just slightly, 37-35, just the fourth time Fordham has been outrebounded on the year.
 
During the game, Davis moved past former teammate and current Player of Development Samantha Clark into eighth all-time, now with 1,265 career points. Becky Peters ('12) is next with 1,318. She also surpassed 500 career field goals, as well, moving into eighth all-time with 503, passing Cecelia Wanker ('83).
 
The Rams travel back to Richmond this weekend, this time to take on the Spiders on Sunday at 2 p.m.