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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (1-4) picked up its first win on Wednesday against Northeastern. The Rams will look to carry that momentum into Sunday's road match-up at Charlotte (4-0), the first of four straight contests away from home. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on C-USA TV. 
 
Last Time Out
The Rams scored over 60 points for the first time in five games, blowing past Northeastern, 74-58, despite a third-quarter scare from the visitors. Fordham got 21 points from Bre Cavanaugh, her second straight 20-point effort after back-to-back games held to single digits, while the trio of Megan Jonassen, Katie McLoughlin, and Vilisi Tavui came up big off the bench with 22 points. Along with those four, Anna DeWolfe matched her season-high with 15 points, adding up to 58 of the team's points. Fordham cruised to a 12-point advantage at halftime but saw that lead fall to just four within 90 seconds of the second half. Northeastern used an 18-5 run in the quarter to take the lead, 42-41, heading to the final 10 minutes. After a Huskies three to open the frame, the Rams took control of the game. McLoughlin drilled a clutch triple and Kaitlyn Downey gave the Rams the lead for good with a last-second heave that banked in. DeWolfe hit two big three-pointers, as well, that turned a one-point lead into seven midway through the period and Cavanaugh and Kendell Heremaia saw the game out with free throws. The Rams shot 46.3% from the field and tallied a season-high 19 assists, while also notching their second double-digit steals effort of the season, with a season-high 11.
 
Series History vs. Charlotte
The 49ers hold a 7-2 all-time lead over the Rams since 2006, but Fordham has won the last two meetings, once in 2013 on the road, before Charlotte left the Atlantic 10, and last season, in which Fordham rallied for a 71-64 win at home. Fordham outscored its foe, 42-28, in the second half, limiting Charlotte to just eight points in the third quarter to take the lead and hit 10-of-14 shots over the final 10 minutes and all eight free-throw attempts down the stretch. Bre Cavanaugh led with 20 points, while Mary Goulding double-doubled with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Kendell Heremaia added what was then a career-high 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
 
Striking the Right Balance
Already through five games, Fordham is seeing plenty of production spread around the members of its rotation. Cavanaugh is unsurprisingly leading the charge in scoring in three of the five games, but Heremaia (twice) and Downey (once) have also stepped up this season. Four different Rams have led the team in rebounding, none more than Megan Jonassen's two games off the bench. Four different Rams have also led the team in assists (Heremaia and Karpell twice each), while five players have had at least one game with a share of or the team-high in steals. Downey had three games leading the way in blocks, but Heremaia and Karpell each have one, as well.
 
1,000
Head coach Stephanie Gaitley, the program's winningest coach, has joined the 1,000-game club with the team's second of the year, at Columbia. She has amassed a 634-369 career record over 34 seasons at five schools.
 
Heremaia's Career Night
Despite the result, junior tri-captain Kendell Heremaia enjoyed a career night at Penn State, setting personal-bests in scoring (19 points), field goals made and attempted (7-of-17), and three-pointers made and attempted (5-of-11). She also chipped in six boards and three assists. Heremaia is second on the team in scoring with 12.8 points per game and is shooting 43.1% overall from the field and 38.7% from behind the arc with a team-high 12 made threes. She continues to stuff the stat sheet, with 11 assists, five steals, and three blocks on the year, as well.
 
Downey's Fast Start
The sophomore tri-captain has began her sophomore campaign impressively, averaging 10.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.0 blocks over 26.8 minutes game, while shooting 43.8% from the field and 34.6% from deep. Downey was immense defensively against #16 Notre Dame, racking up a team-high 11 rebounds, five steals, and two blocks to go with seven points, the last two of which got the Rams within two, 57-55, with 11 seconds left in regulation. At Columbia, Downey poured in a career-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
 
Busy Bre
Bre Cavanaugh has started all 73 contests in her Fordham career and has been nothing short of spectacular for the Rams during her time in maroon and white. The redshirt junior became the third-fastest Ram to reach 1,000 career points, doing so in 60 contests, and has already amassed 1,234 career points, now 11th all-time. The Allamuchy, N.J. native has racked up 2,799 career minutes thus far out of a possible 2,950 (94.9%), finishing each of the last two seasons within the top-10 in that category nationally. She's already moved into the top-10 for three-pointers, now ninth with 148, eighth with 278 free throws, and is fourth all-time with a 16.9 point-per-game average. Cavanaugh has been held to single digit scoring just nine times in her career and has 28 games of 20 or more points.
 
Crashing the Offensive Glass
A staple recently of the Stephanie Gaitley Rams is the team's prowess on the offensive boards. Whether it was Abigail Corning, Sam Clark, and company five years ago during the team's first title run, the two years in which G'mrice Davis averaged a double-double, or last year's squad who grabbed nearly one-third of all their rebounds on the offensive glass (32.1%), with six different players finishing with at least 35 offensive rebounds on the year. Against Notre Dame, despite facing some taller players, the Rams grabbed 16 of their 41 rebounds on the offensive end, and hauled in more offensive (18) than defensive (12) at Penn State. Through five games, of Fordham's 156 rebounds, 53 have been offensive (34.0%). Sophomore Megan Jonassen this year (13-of-22) and for her career (66-of-128) has more offensive rebounds than defensive. Sarah Karpell has eight offensive boards out of 12, as well.
 
This Is Our House
Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 100-31 (76.3%) record at home across 131 contests. Over the last three seasons, the Rams are 42-11 in the Bronx, including a 19-5 mark in conference play and two Holiday Classic crowns. Last year, Fordham finished 12-4 at home overall and 6-2 in league action. On the flip side, Gaitley's Rams are 70-67 (51.1%) on the road or on neutral ground during her tenure.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
No stat better represents the Gaitley-infused defense than Fordham's 69-6 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. The team's 47-44 loss to VCU on January 16th snapped a streak of 16 straight wins. A new streak began soon after with a 56-38 win at Rhode Island, which has reached eight games entering this season.
 
Rams in the Pros
G'mrice Davis, who graduated in 2017, currently plays professionally with Bnot Hertzeliya in Israel after spending time in Greece with GAS Kalyvion and Australia with the Rockland Cyclones, which featured her former teammate and 2019 graduate Mary Goulding. Mary finished her season strong and moved on to Sweden, where she now plays for IK Eos. Lauren Holden, who graduated in 2019, immediately moved into coaching, joining up with former associate head coach Angelika Szumilo at Fairleigh Dickinson as one of her assistants.
 
Up Next
The Rams participate in next weekend's Bahamas Hoopfest, against Arkansas and Lehigh on November 29th and 30th, respectively, both at 4 p.m.