Davidson, N.C. – The Fordham women's basketball team led nearly wire-to-wire in Wednesday night's 58-42 road win at Davidson, the team's fifth straight, ascending to second in the Atlantic 10 standings in the process. During the contest, senior
Lauren Holden broke the program record for career minutes played and redshirt sophomore
Bre Cavanaugh scored her 1,000
th career point. With the win, the Rams improve to 18-8 overall on the year and 9-3 in league action, while the Wildcats fall to 14-10 and 8-3, respectively.
"Super road win that also feature two big milestones," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "Bre scores her 1,000
th point in just her sophomore year and Lauren is an 'Iron Ram' with the most minutes ever played at Fordham. Nice to see individuals get recognized after a terrific team win!"
Fordham overcame a sluggish start to the contest, with the Wildcats converting their first four field goal attempts to lead, 8-3, after four minutes, and rode tremendous two-way play to a 13-12 lead that eventually stretched to double digits by halftime. The Rams coasted the rest of the way to their fifth straight victory.
The Rams defense held Davidson to just 13 points total in the second and third quarters, including a season-low five points in the third. From the 7:48 mark of the second frame to 3:48 left in the third, the Wildcats were held to just four points, a near 12-minute duration in which Fordham scored 17 points.
Lauren Holden hit a pair of three-pointers, back-to-back, to spark the offense in the first quarter, cutting the deficit to two and then one. Her first make was the 200th of her career, the fifth Ram to ever reach the milestone, and her second pushed her passed Suzanne Maguire ('97) for fourth all-time at Fordham.
Mary Goulding's layup at the two-minute mark proved to be the go-ahead basket and the visitors led, 17-14, after the opening 10 minutes. At the end of the frame, having never sat down, Holden surpassed both current women's basketball staffers
Abigail Corning and
Samantha Clark to break the all-time career minutes played record, with 4,157, and finished the game at 4,186.
The hosts answered layups by Goulding and
Kendell Heremaia to begin the second quarter but were shut out for the next seven minutes as Fordham scored nine unanswered points on triples from Heremaia, Cavanaugh, and
Kaitlyn Downey. A layup by Cassidy Gould and a last-second layup by Ally Welling sandwiched around a pair of Downey free-throw makes made it an 11-point lead at the break.
Although the Fordham offense scored just six points over the first six-plus minutes of the second half, the Fordham defense held the Wildcats without a point during that same stretch. Davidson scored two baskets and added a free throw in the frame. The fourth quarter played much more up-tempo, with the Rams holding a slight 16-15 advantage over the final 10 minutes.
Fordham outshot the Wildcats, 39.0% to 36.0%, and held the hosts without a three-point make on nine attempts, the second time this year an opponent has been held without a make from deep. The Rams, meanwhile, tallied 10 triples for a second straight game, shooting 34.5% from behind the arc. The Rams won the battle of the boards, 40-30, including a 13-6 margin on the offensive end. Fordham also tallied 17 assists to 13 turnovers, while the Wildcats recorded an 8/15 assist/turnover ratio.
Cavanaugh led the way with a game-high 15 points, finishing with 1,004 career points, to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Downey scored 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting and both Goulding and Holden tallied 11 points apiece. Goulding enjoyed her seventh double-double of the season with 11 rebounds to go with a game-high five assists and a steal over 38 minutes. Heremaia chipped in across the board with seven points, nine rebounds, and three assists over 32 minutes.
The Rams remain on the road for a Saturday afternoon date at St. Bonaventure with tip-off set for 1 p.m.
