Charlotte, N.C. – The Fordham women's basketball team led wire to wire for a 76-51 road win at Charlotte on Sunday afternoon, finishing the day with the program's second-most three-pointers, 15, in a single contest and most away from home. With the win, their second straight, the Rams improve to 2-4 overall, while the 49ers fall to 4-1.
"This was a significant win for us in many ways – we beat an undefeated team on their court and we were able to put our defensive game together," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "Total team effort results in a great road win!"
The underclassmen duo of
Anna DeWolfe and
Kaitlyn Downey combined for 49 points, setting new career-highs with 25 and 24 points, respectively. Downey set the tone for the game by hitting two consecutive treys on the team's opening possessions, scoring eight of the team's 11 points by the first media timeout. DeWolfe, meanwhile, didn't score in the opening period, missing her first five attempts, but flourished from that point on, scoring 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting over the final three frames. Fordham shot 52.0% from the floor for the game, including a 48.4% mark from downtown (15-of-31). It was just the second time a Rams squad had hit more than 13 three-pointers in a single game.
A trio of threes put Fordham up with an early 9-3 advantage before the hosts cut the deficit to two, 9-7, through two layups by Octavia Jett-Wilson. On the other end, Downey found the bottom of the net at the end of the shot clock and, after a pair of free throws from Jade Phillips answered on the other end, the Rams closed out the period on a 10-3 run. A pair of
Katie McLoughlin offensive rebounds kept play alive, leading to Heremaia getting fouled and hitting both freebies. Heremaia drained a three with two minutes to go,
Megan Jonassen got on the board with a fastbreak layup, and
Bre Cavanaugh banked in a three at the buzzer. The team's 21 points were a new season-high for the first 10 minutes.
A Jonassen offensive board led to a DeWolfe three on the Rams' opening possession to double Charlotte's score, 24-12, and Downey drilled her third the next trip down the court. DeWolfe began to find her groove, hitting another three and attacking the rim on two consecutive possessions for layups, the latter coming after a Heremaia offensive rebound, as the freshman racked up a personal 7-0 run. After a few minutes of slow, defensive action, Fordham again came up with big threes late. Downey and Heremaia each hit one in the final 75 seconds to push the lead to 19 at the break, 44-25.
The third quarter was slow and defensive compared to the opening 20 minutes. Fordham still took the frame, 12-11, holding the 49ers to just two field goals that came in the opening three minutes. Charlotte next hit a field goal nearly eight minutes later on a Phillips jumper to begin the fourth quarter. Downey followed that bucket with a pair of free throws and her sixth triple of the game, becoming just the 11
th Ram to hit six in a single game. DeWolfe scored eight more points in the frame, including an and-one play, combined with a Cavanaugh bucket and a McLoughlin three.
DeWolfe led the way with 25 points on 10-of-22 shooting, 4-of-11 from behind the arc, with three boards and three assists over all 40 minutes. Downey shot an ultra efficient 8-of-10 from the floor, 6-of-8 from long distance, and 2-of-2 from the line to go with five boards over 33 minutes. Cavanaugh played all but one minute in the contest and added 12 points, three boards, two assists, and two steals. Heremaia took just five shot attempts, hitting two, for eight points, but contributed a season-high 14 rebounds and six assists across 32 minutes.
Sarah Karpell was limited to eight minutes due to foul trouble so McLoughlin logged a career-high 21 minutes, hitting 2-of-3 shots for five points to go with three offensive rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
Cavanaugh moved into the top-10 in career scoring at Fordham, up to 10th with 1,246 points, passing Terri Vaccarino ('85). She also moved into a tie with Nicole Williams ('92) for seventh-most free throws, with 282, and is just three away from moving into the top-five.
The Rams also hit all nine of their free-throw attempts, outrebounded Charlotte, 36-34, and recorded an assist/turnover ratio of 17/10.
Fordham next travels to Nassau for Bahamas Hoopfest next weekend, taking on Arkansas and Lehigh on back-to-back days, Friday and Saturday, at 4 p.m.
