New York, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team fell, 70-51, at Columbia on Sunday afternoon to fall to 0-2 on the young season. Sophomore captain
Kaitlyn Downey scored a career-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field, including three three-pointers.
"We played like we were still thinking about the Notre Dame game," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "Columbia played very well and were the better team. We need to learn from this and move on!"
Things started slowly for the Rams, falling behind, 9-2, at the first media break of the day, but quickly found their footing and tied the game up over the next two minutes with seven unanswered points. From that media timeout on, Fordham outscored the hosts, 13-7, to trail by one, 16-15, after the opening frame. Fordham grabbed its first lead of the day, 24-23, halfway through the second on a Downey triple, but the Lions retook the lead with two quick baskets, prompting a timeout from Gaitley. Downey and
Kendell Heremaia combined for five points and the Rams were leading by one, 31-30, heading into the final seconds of the half, but Columbia's Madison Hardy's fastbreak layup with a couple ticks left on the clock put them up one at the intermission.
The third quarter was end-to-end high-tempo offense, with both teams making over half of their shots in the early going. Columbia never slowed down, however, shooting 61.5% on 13 attempts in the frame, while the Rams struggled after an early flourish, finishing the period 6-of-17 from the floor (35.3%), including misses on all four long-range attempts.
The Rams' shooting woes continued in the fourth, as the team scored just eight points on 2-of-11 shooting, while the Lions added 19 points for a second straight quarter on 53.8% shooting.
Downey led the way offensively with 19 points, hitting a personal-best eight field goals, plus three triples, to go with three boards, two assists, and a block over 31 minutes before fouling out. Heremaia added 13 points, four boards, an assist, block, and steal.
Anna DeWolfe chipped in nine points, six boards, and two dimes over 34 minutes, while Cavanaugh played all 40 minutes again, leading the squad with seven rebounds, but shooting just 2-of-11 from the floor, just her eighth career game held under 10 points over 70 contests. Freshman
Sarah Karpell tallied a team-high three assists, adding three boards, and two points.
Sunday was Coach Gaitley's 1,000
th career coached game over her 33-plus years. Gaitley has coached at five different schools, including these nine years in the Bronx, and has amassed a 633-367 career record, a win percentage of .633, with 18 20-win seasons.
Fordham has a quick turnaround, heading to Penn State for a Wednesday night match-up with the Lady Lions at 7 p.m.
