Philadelphia, Pa. – The Fordham women's basketball team clinched a share of its first-ever Atlantic 10 regular season title with its ninth straight win and program-record 13
th conference victory on Saturday afternoon with a 51-41 win at Saint Joseph's. With the win, the Rams improve to 22-8 overall and 13-3 in league action, while the Hawks fall to 11-19 and 7-9, respectively.
"Wow, what a day and what an accomplishment for such an unselfish group of kids," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "I'm so very happy and proud of them. This team will be a part of Fordham women's history!"
Bre Cavanaugh and
Mary Goulding combined for 42 points and 21 rebounds in the game, with the former scoring 19 points in the first half and the latter taking over in the second half. The Rams struggled to score over the final five first-half minutes and in the opening half of the third period, but the defense held firm and kept the Hawks to just 14 second-half points as Fordham surged ahead down the stretch.
Saint Joseph's led for the majority of the opening 10 minutes, taking a 13-9 lead with three minutes to play. A Goulding jumper got the Rams within two and Cavanaugh then stole the ball from Kristalyn Baisden and tied the game up at 13-all. Cavanaugh began to heat up and drained a three with just under a minute to play to give Fordham its first lead of the game. After a Hawks turnover, the Rams held for the last shot of the period and it was again Cavanaugh delivering from long range, pushing the lead to four, 19-15, after one frame.
A scorching-hot Cavanaugh stepped up with a third straight triple to begin the second quarter and, after nearly three minutes of scoreless ball, the redshirt sophomore knocked down a fourth to give the visitors a double-digit lead, 25-15. Saint Joseph's called a timeout and regrouped. After
Kendell Heremaia's free throw, the Hawks rallied with nine unanswered points over the final five minutes of the half, including Katie Jekot's last-second jumper to regain the lead, 27-26, heading into the break.
Cavanaugh got to the line to tie the game, 28-28, with 7:25 left in the frame and it was senior
Lauren Holden, who was held scoreless to that point, to provide the eventual game-winning points on a driving layup. A Heremaia steal and another Holden fastbreak layup followed before Cavanaugh and Goulding each netted a jumper to take a 36-33 lead into the final 10 minutes. Holden's first basket was the first one not by Cavanaugh since late in the first quarter.
What looked like yet another tense finish to a Fordham-Saint Joseph's defensive slugfest turned into a double-digit Fordham win thanks to the late heroics of Goulding; the senior scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter. While Goulding and the Rams shot 45.5% in the frame, the defense clamped down on the Hawks, holding them to just 2-of-13 shooting (15.4%) overall, with both makes coming from behind the arc, and just 29.2% in the contest, a new season-low for a Fordham opponent.
Cavanaugh led the way with 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting, 5-of-8 from long range, and 5-of-8 from the charity stripe, with eight rebounds, an assist, and a steal over 40 minutes. Goulding recorded her ninth double-double of the season, and sixth in her last 10 games, posting 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 13 rebounds, plus a block. Heremaia and Holden each finished with four points, the latter adding three rebounds and team-highs of two assists and two steals.
Fordham shot 43.9% from the field, including a 38.5% mark from downtown, with a 10-of-16 clip from the line. Cavanaugh's second three pushed this year's squad into second all-time for single-season threes, finishing the game with 225 this year. The Rams outrebounded the Hawks, 34-24, but committed three more turnovers, 12-9, with a season-low six assists.
The Rams, riding a nine-game winning streak, are the third Fordham program to win an Atlantic 10 regular season title, after Men's Soccer and Softball. The team's 13 conference victories are also a new program record.
With VCU's win over Davidson, the Rams have solidified the #2 seed at next week's Atlantic 10 Championship, hosted by Duquesne, and will play in the 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal next Friday, March 8
th against either #7 George Mason or #10 Massachusetts.
