Women's Basketball at Saint Louis on Sunday

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (11-5, 2-0) is riding a six-game winning streak, including a 2-0 start to Atlantic 10 action, into this Sunday's marquee match-up at Saint Louis (6-9, 1-1), which will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network at 4 p.m. ET.
 
Last Time Out
The Rams made it six straight wins on Wednesday with a 12-point victory over Richmond, 60-48, a fifth game during that run holding opponents below 50 points. In front of 2,500 fans and local schoolchildren during the team's annual Field Trip Day event, the Rams surged ahead with another efficient first-quarter performance and never trailed from that point on. Redshirt sophomore Bre Cavanaugh flirted with triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists, the latter two matching and setting new career-highs, respectively. Richmond's Alex Parsons gave the visitors a quick 6-3 lead and the Spiders led the last time, 10-9, before a Kaitlyn Downey three-pointer proved to be all that the hosts would need. The Spiders chipped away at a nine-point deficit in the second quarter, trailing by three, 23-20, but Fordham finished the first half with an 11-5 run via Cavanaugh and Megan Jonassen. The Rams kept their foot on the pedal, leading by as much as 23 to finish the third quarter, 54-31, before the visitors went on a 17-6 run in the fourth quarter as Fordham emptied its bench.
 
Wednesday was Cavanaugh's seventh 20-point effort of the season and second 20-point double-double, her fifth overall on the year. Seniors Mary Goulding and Lauren Holden combined for 28 points on 12-of-21 shooting, the latter notching four threes for a second consecutive game and the former chipped in seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Kendell Heremaia posted another all-around line of five points, seven boards, three assists, and a steal across 25 minutes, and Jonassen matched her season-best six rebounds (five offensive) to go with four points off the bench.
 
Series History vs. Saint Louis
The Billikens hold a 10-7 all-time series advantage since 2006, when they joined the Atlantic 10. Fordham took the rivalry's first meeting, 70-58, at home that year before each school rattled off five straight wins. Saint Louis has won five of the last six meetings since 2015, including a 91-85 double-overtime thriller at Chaifetz Arena last January 31, the game in which Bre Cavanaugh set a Fordham freshman record of 37 points scored, which turned out to be a season-high for all A-10 players last year. Earlier that month, the Rams won, 66-63, at home in yet another thriller. In that game, G'mrice Davis went off for a career-high 31 points plus 15 rebounds, four assists, and two steals, while Cavanaugh scored 20.
 
Swiper No Swiping
Fordham is third in the country in limiting turnovers, with just 10.9 per game through the team's first 16 contests and behind only Oregon and Wyoming, the only three to average fewer than 11. Fordham has committed between seven and 15 turnovers thus far this season, with four single-digit turnover performances and eight games with 10 or less. The season-low seven turnovers came against Charlotte on November 18th, the lowest number since Coach Gaitley's 600th career victory last January 25th against St. Bonaventure, when they had just 10, and last time with seven or fewer since December 9th, 2017 against Iona, when they had six.
 
The Rams have five of the top 20 in assist/turnover ratio in the Atlantic 10. Kaitlyn Downey is fifth (1.8), Zara Jillings (2.2) is tied for sixth (1.7), Bre Cavanaugh is tied for 10th (1.6), Mary Goulding is tied for 16th (1.5), and Kendell Heremaia is tied for 20th (1.4). All six Rams who are averaging 20 or more minutes have a positive assist/turnover ratio.
 
Six-Game Winning Streak
The Rams have rattled off six straight wins since opening nonconference action with a 5-5 record. During the run, Fordham has wins at Iona, over Maine and Middle Tennessee State at the 12th Annual Holiday Classic, at George Washington, and now over Richmond to begin conference play. Here are some key stats from the team's winning streak:
                - Average margin of victory: 61.3 to 48.0 (+13.3)
                - Outshooting opponents 42.4% to 38.5% overall and 32.8% to 20.9% from behind the arc
                - Outrebounding opponents 35.7 to 26.3 (+9.4), including 76-42 on the offensive glass
                - Bre Cavanaugh averaging 16.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.7 steals over 39.3 minutes
                - Lauren Holden averaging 12.3 points on 50.0% overall shooting and 48.4% from deep
                - Jonassen (57.1%), Goulding (51.7%), Holden (50.0%), and Downey (45.7%) shooting well
 
Coach Gaitley Reaches 150 Fordham Victories
The 68-49 win over Columbia was head coach Stephanie Gaitley's 150th in charge of the Fordham women's basketball program. She became the program's all-time winningest coach in 2016 and picked up career victory number 600 last year.
 
Other milestone Fordham victories for Coach Gaitley include:
                - First win: at home against Cleveland State, 52-43, on 11/16/11
                - 50th win: at home against Saint Louis, 74-52, on 1/2/14
                - 63rd win: in the A-10 Championship game against Dayton, 63-51, on 3/9/14, in Richmond, Va.
                - 100th win: against Little Rock, 65-43, at home in the opening round of the preseason WNIT on 11/19/16
                - 116th win (to become program's leader in wins): vs. Massachusetts, 74-43, on 2/11/17
 
Kiwis Coming Through
Fordham's New Zealand contingent of Mary Goulding, Kendell Heremaia, and Zara Jillings combined for 37 points against Charlotte, including 22 in the fourth quarter alone out of the team's 29 points. Jillings hit a three-pointer in the corner then fed Heremaia for a layup to retake the lead for good and Goulding scored 12 points the rest of the way, all from the field, to secure the victory. Against Ball State, with Goulding struggling with her shot (despite tallying seven boards and a game-high six dimes), Heremaia and Jillings each set new career-highs in scoring, with 15 and 12 points, respectively, with the former matching her career-high six field goals and three triples, the latter notching a personal-best two steals to go with eight rebounds and five assists. The trio combined for 27 points and 16 rebounds against Washington and Heremaia netted a new career-best 17 points against #10/9 Texas in the Gulf Coast Showcase final.
 
Goulding and Heremaia are second and fourth on the team in scoring, respectively, with 10.7 and 8.4 points per game, and second and first in assists, with 48 and 41, respectively, while Jillings chips in 4.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 26 assists off the bench. The Kiwis have combined to average 23.4 points per game, or 37.8% of the team's scoring, 15.0 rebounds (42.6% of the team's rebounding), and 115 assists, or 54.0% of the team's total of 213. Against Manhattan on December 1st was the first of two times all three have started together. 
 
Crashing the Offensive Glass
Last year, nearly one-third of the Rams' 1,268 total rebounds came on the offensive glass (408 - 32.1%). Fordham lost leading rebounder G'mrice Davis in the offseason but the Rams haven't missed a beat thus far in 2018-19, hauling in just under 40% of their total boards on the offensive glass (204-of-564 – 36.2%). Five different Rams already have at least 23 offensive boards and six are in double figures. Mary Goulding leads the way with 48-of-112 offensive boards, Megan Jonassen has 30 (of 60 total), Bre Cavanaugh has 28, Kaitlyn Downey has 26, and Zara Jillings has 23. Kendell Heremaia has 17. Fordham has had between 13 and 19 offensive rebounds in 10 contests this year, including the first six of the year. The Rams matched their season-high with 19 against Maine.
 
Holden Ascending the All-Time Ranks
Having played the fourth-most minutes in Fordham history, it's no surprise to see Lauren Holden's name high up in the record book. The Cape May, N.J. native's recent hot shooting from deep has pushed her into the all-time top-five for three-pointers made, past Maureen Garvey ('01) and current Director of Ops Abigail Corning ('14), with 185 career long-range makes. Next is Suzanne Maguire, who has 200. Her 84.3% career rate from the free-throw line sits fifth all-time, as well. She is also on pace to become the 21st member of the program's 1,000-point club, currently at 985, as well as break the record for career minutes played and enter the top-five for games played and stated, currently at 114 and 99, respectively. She is currently at 3,791 minutes played, seven behind Hannah Missry ('17) for third all-time.
 
Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub
Through 16 games to open the 2018-19 season, the Rams have had 10 double-doubles by four different players. Redshirt sophomore Bre Cavanaugh, who had zero entering this season, leads the way with five and senior Mary Goulding has three near-identical ones - grabbing 12 rebounds each time. Kaitlyn Downey posted 11 points and 11 rebounds against Penn State for her first career double-double and Kendell Heremaia did the same with 13 points and 10 rebounds against Washington. G'mrice Davis graduated in May tied for a NCAA-wide lead with 57 career double-doubles and had 27 last year alone.
 
G'mrice Thriving in Greece
Former Fordham standout forward G'mrice Davis, the program's first All-American honorable mention, signed her first professional contract with GAS Kalyvion in the Greek A1 league over the summer and, through her team's first eight contests, is leading the league in scoring (18.1 points per game) and rebounding (15.3 per game), and is chipping in 1.9 steals, as well, as Kalyvion is fourth in the table with a 4-4 record. The top four teams in the league advance to the playoffs. Eurobasket.com named G'mrice the league's Player of the Week after Round 7. Click here to read an interview with G'mrice about her time abroad.
 
Quite the Start
Bre Cavanaugh has started all 50 contests in her Fordham career and has been nothing short of spectacular for the Rams during her time in maroon and white. The redshirt sophomore finished her freshman season with the second-most minutes ever played in a single campaign, with 1,306, and is averaging 38.4 minutes per game so far in her career. She is averaging 17.4 points per game with 283 field goals, 101 three-pointers, and 202 free throws, with an average of 5.5 rebounds per game, a 98-77 assist-to-turnover ratio, and 61 steals. She is on pace to join the 1,000-point club next month, currently at 869 career points. Cavanaugh has only been held to single-digit scoring five times in her career and has 19 games of 20 or more points. She became the fourth Fordham rookie last year to record multiple 30-point games and just the sixth player, in any class, to accomplish the feat, as well, with her 37-point game at Saint Louis (1/31/18) serving as the fourth-most by a Fordham player ever and the Atlantic 10's season-high all of last year.
 
Got a Minute?
Senior co-captain Lauren Holden set a new Fordham record with 1,333 minutes played last year, which ranked fourth in the country and second on a per-game basis (39.2), and is on pace to break the all-time school record, currently held by current Director of Player Development Samantha Clark, who played 4,156 minutes in her career (current Director of Ops Abigail Corning in next with 4,154). A starter midway through her freshman year, Holden became the 15th Ram to surpass 3,000 career minutes, now up to 3,791 for her career, which ranks fourth all-time, recently passing Annie Zopf ('09) against Charlotte, Denise Hammersley ('95) against Ball State, Kristina Bell ('11) against Columbia, Suzanne Maguire ('97) against Middle Tennessee State, and both Monica Mack ('05) and Becky Peters ('12) at George Washington.
 
Heremaia Raising the Bar
Sophomore Kendell Heremaia has been terrific for the Rams this year, starting all 16 contests, after making seven starts in 33 appearances last year, leading the team with 48 assists, and averaging 8.6 points per game. The Whangarei, New Zealand native has set four new highs in scoring, starting with 13 in the season opener against Wagner and culiminating in 17 against #10 Texas. Heremaia has hit at least one three-pointer in all but three games and has shot 50% or better in six contests. Prior to a recent cold-shooting stretch her last five games, the sophomore was shooting 47.7% from the field and 43.2% from behind the arc. Heremaia is also chipping in 4.5 rebounds, third-highest on the team. She has played 25 or more minutes in 12 contests.
 
This Is Our House
Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold an 93-28 (76.9%) record at home across 121 contests. Over the last two-plus seasons, the Rams are 36-7 in the Bronx, including a 13-3 mark in conference play and two Holiday Classic crowns. Last year, Fordham finished 15-3 at home overall and 6-2 in league action. On the flip side, Gaitley's Rams are 62-63 (49.6%) on the road or on neutral ground during her tenure.
 
60 is the Magic Number?
Fordham is 40-4 over its last two-plus seasons when scoring 60 points or more, including a 16-3 mark a year ago and 9-1 start to this season. After scoring at or under 55 points across the first six contests last season, the Rams rattled off 21 games with at least 60 points over their final 28 games. The loss at Pittsburgh was the first while scoring over 60 since a double-overtime loss at Saint Louis last January 31st.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
No stat better represents the Gaitley-infused defense than Fordham's 61-5 record when holding opponents under 50 points during her tenure. Two Januarys ago, 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. Since that streak ended, the Rams have rattled off 16 such wins. Fordham is 26-1 in its last 27 contests with rivals scoring under 50 points, including this year's three instances against Columbia, Iona, Middle Tennesseee State, George Washington, and Richmond.
 
Cavanaugh Named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Again
The redshirt sophomore earned MVP honors of the Fordham Holiday Classic last weekend by averaging 17.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals en route to the Rams' second straight crown at their own tournament. Cavanaugh picked up her second ever Player of the Week honor after earning four Rookie of the Week accolades last year. Earlier this season, Cavanaugh garnered the award for a first time with an excellent performance at the Gulf Coast Showcase, leading Fordham to the championship game by averaging 22.3 points on 42.1% shooting, 35.5% from deep, with 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.7 steals over 37.3 minutes of three games. Read more about it by clicking here.
 
Mary Goulding Named Atlantic 10 and National Jesuit Player of the Week
The New Zealand international earned her first weekly career accolades a month ago by averaging a double-double (13.0 points and 10.5 rebounds) agianst Penn State and Charlotte. The senior captain recorded 11 points and nine boards against the Lady Lions and was instrumental in the team's fourth-quarter rally against the 49ers, scoring 12 of her 16 points in the period alone. Goulding added 12 boards, a career-high two blocks, a steal, and an assist, and hauled in five offensive boards in each contest. Read more about Mary's week by clicking here.
 
Three Sign Their NLIs
Coach Gaitley and the program announced three future additions to the team as Anna DeWolfe, Eden Johnson, and Sarah Karpell signed their National Letters of Intent. To read more about the newest Rams, click here.
 
Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll Results
For the second year in a row the Rams have themselves a preseason First Team All-Conference honoree. Last year it was senior G'mrice Davis but this year it is redshirt sophomore Bre Cavanaugh, who finished up a sensational rookie campaign with Second Team and All-Rookie distinction plus being named the MBWA's Metropolitan Rookie of the Year. The team, meanwhile, was predicted to finish in a tie for third place, alongside reigning conference champions, George Washington, in what is the highest the Rams have ever been in the annual poll under Coach Gaitley. Click here to read more.
 
Career Milestone Watch
- Bre Cavanaugh is 31 points away from 900
- Bre Cavanaugh is two assists away from 100
- Bre Cavanaugh is 23 rebounds away from 300
- Bre Cavanaugh is 17 field goals away from 300
- Bre Cavanaugh is 81 minutes away from 2,000
- Mary Goulding is 12 points away from 500
- Mary Goulding is two starts away from 50
- Mary Goulding is nine field goals away from 200
- Mary Goulding is 40 rebounds away from 400
- Kendell Heremaia is 22 assists away from 100
- Kendell Heremaia is nine three-pointers away from 50
- Kendell Heremaia is 15 field goals away from 100
- Kendell Heremaia is one appearance away from 50
- Lauren Holden is 15 points away from 1,000
- Lauren Holden is 15 three-pointers away from 200
- Lauren Holden is six appearances away from 120
- Lauren Holden is one start away from 100
- Lauren Holden is 15 assists away from 250
- Lauren Holden is 10 free throws away from 150
- Lauren Holden is nine minutes away from 3,800
- Zara Jillings is 22 assists away from 100
- Zara Jillings is 39 minutes away from 1,000
 
Up Next
Fordham returns home to host VCU next Wednesday afternoon at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.