Boston, Mass – Stout defense and tenacious rebounding couldn't overcome the Fordham women's basketball team's shooting woes in a tough 58-54 loss at Northeastern on Sunday afternoon. With the loss, the Rams fall to 1-1 on the young season, while the Huskies improve to 2-0.
The Rams shot just 28.6% from the field in the loss, including a 14.8% mark from three-point range, despite the defense limiting the hosts to rates of 33.3% and 21.4%, respectively. Fordham against worked the offensive glass, corralling 19 of 42 rebounds on that end, but the Huskies posted a similar number of 15 offensive boards out of 46.
Bre Cavanaugh and
Mary Goulding each finished the contest with 15 points and 40 minutes played, with the latter adding 12 rebounds, nine offensive. Cavanaugh hit just 5-of-22 shots from the floor, including 0-of-6 from deep, but sank all five of her free throws and chipped in six rebounds and three assists over the full 40 minutes.
Northeastern started quickly, scoring five unanswered points on its opening two possessions but the Rams shook off their slow start to dominate the rest of the opening period, running up a 16-2 stretch over the final eight-plus minutes to lead, 16-7, at the first interval. Fordham had seven offensive rebounds during that stretch. A
Kendell Heremaia layup gave the visitors' their largest lead of the afternoon, 18-7, but the Huskies regrouped and began to whittle away at the deficit, eventually getting it to just three, 24-21, at the break.
The third quarter saw a major uptick in offense as Northeastern slightly edged the Rams, 19-18. The Huskies came out of halftime firing, using a quick 5-0 run to retake the lead, 26-24. The two teams traded buckets and leads over the next several minutes until a Cavanaugh and-one play put Fordham up two, 32-30, though it was short-lived as Courtney Redcross drained an open jumper to knot things back up with 5:45 to play in the period. Over the next four minutes, the Rams kept their opponents off the board and forced three turnovers, while taking a five-point lead via points by
Megan Jonassen,
Zara Jillings, and Goulding. A Gabby Giacone three-point play closed to the gap to two with just under two minutes to play, which would be the eventual margin at the end of the period following five straight points from freshman
Kaitlyn Downey, two at the line and a three-point make on consecutive possessions, surrounded by a Shannon Todd trey and an Ayanna Dublin jumper.
Up until the fourth, the Rams backcourt had kept Northeastern's 1,000-point scorer, Jess Genco, off the board. Genco's first basket in the early part of the final 10 minutes tied the game up at 42-all and the senior would sink six free throws down the stretch as the Huskies saw out the win. After that make, Northeastern took two two-point leads that Fordham answered, once by Cavanaugh and once by Downey. On the next possession after Downey's make, Dublin's layup gave the Huskies the lead for good.
Rounding out the Rams scoring was Downey, with seven points, Heremaia and
Lauren Holden, with five each, Jonassen, with three, and Jillings and
Vilisi Tavui with two points apiece. Downey grabbed six rebounds over 25 minutes, five coming on the offensive glass, while Jonassen hauled in five and two, respectively. Cavanaugh had a team-high three assists with four others tallying two. Graduate student
Alexa Giuliano came off the bench to make her Fordham debut and picked up a pair of steals across 11 minutes.
The Rams are back in action this Wednesday night in the Bronx against Penn State. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. with the game streamed live on ESPN+.
