Blacksburg, Va. – The Fordham women's basketball team's 2017-18 campaign has reached its conclusion with an 81-50 WNIT Sweet Sixteen loss at Virginia Tech on Thursday night. The Rams will finish their season with a 24-10 overall record and having matched the program's furthest postseason run.
"A big thank you to G for all of her accomplishments. She will graduate as one of the best put on a Fordham uniform," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "So proud of her growth both on and off the court. I'm super proud of what this team accomplished. We really got the most out of them and I'm excited that the core of our team is returning."
G'mrice Davis finished her 125
th game in maroon & white with 12 points and nine rebounds, plus a block and a game-high three steals and finishes her career with 1,497 points and 1,199 rebounds, the fourth- and second-most, respectively, in school history, plus an Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year honor and back-to-back First Team All-Conference selections.
Bre Cavanaugh also finished in double figures, something she has done in all but four contests during her outstanding freshman campaign, with 11 points to give her 69 during the team's three-game WNIT run, an average of 23.0 per game. Cavanaugh also surpassed Erin Rooney ('14) for the eighth-most points in a season, finishing with 578, and set a Fordham rookie record with 34 starts.
Juniors
Mary Goulding and
Lauren Holden combined for 17 points and nine rebounds, while
Katie McLoughlin led the bench with a season-high six points on 2-of-2 shooting from behind the arc.
The Hokies jumped out to a 14-7 lead during a defensive opening 10 minutes and never looked back, leading throughout, and scoring 31 points in the second period to coast the rest of the way. Cavanaugh and Davis were held scoreless over those first 10 minutes but combined for 15 points in the second frame. Cavanaugh hit a three with eight seconds to play but Rachel Camp hit a running three-pointer at the buzzer to cap the Hokies' 45-point first half. Camp herself finished the half with a personal 9-5 run.
Virginia Tech won the battle of the boards early, with just one fewer offensive board, 10, than Fordham's total number, 11, and finished the game with a 43-25 advantage on the glass. Both teams committed 10 turnovers and combined for just 22 fouls but the Hokies tallied 14 assists to Fordham's six.
Fordham shot just 34.5% from the floor and 35.3% from deep, while the hosts shot 50.0% and 37.5%, respectively. Virginia Tech scored 38 points in the paint, 17 off turnovers, and 22 second-chance points, as well.
Davis will also finish with 319 career free throws and 589 field goals, both ranked fourth all-time in program history and having made 125 appearances, seventh-most all-time, and 96 starts, ninth-most. Her 208 field goals this season rank eighth-most and her 429 rebounds finish fourth.
Holden wraps up her junior campaign by setting the single-season school record for minutes played, with 1,333, and is followed right after by Cavanaugh, who played 1,306 minutes. Holden is now joint-seventh with 155 career three-pointers and sixth with an 83.6% free-throw rate. Cavanaugh also finishes her freshman campaign with 146 free throws, fifth-most in a single season, and a 84.8% conversion rate, 10
th-highest. The duo also entered the single-season top-10 of three's made with 71 and 67, respectively, which now rank joint-fifth and ninth.
The team's 24 wins are now the fifth-most in program history. Coach Gaitley has overseen three of the program's highest win totals. The squad's 76.6% free-throw percentage will end up being just .3 short of the single-season school record set by the 1993-94 Rams, ranking third-highest, and their 186 three-pointers made ranks fourth-most all-time, as well. The team's final tally of 2,069 points also sits sixth all-time.
