Women's Basketball Opens A-10 Play with St. Bonaventure on Saturday

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (8-5) will carry a seven-game win streak into its conference opener against St. Bonaventure (3-10) on Saturday afternoon, January 4. Tip-off from the Rose Hill Gym is set for 2 p.m. ESPN+ and WFUV 90.7 FM will carry live coverage.
 
Last Time Out
Fordham secured its third consecutive Holiday Classic crown, fifth overall, with a 31-point win over Samford and a nine-point win over Houston on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Junior Kendell Heremaia was named Tournament MVP after flirting with a triple-double in both contests, averaging 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists. Joining her on the All-Tournament team were Bre Cavanaugh, who scored a game-high 19 points against Houston, and Anna DeWolfe, who added 17 against the Cougars on an efficient 7-of-10 shootig from the field. Kaitlyn Downey tied her career-high with 11 rebounds against Houston. Against Samford, the Rams shot 43.9% overall from the floor, tied for their third-highest mark of the season, and hit 11-of-29 three-point attempts. The offense handed out 17 assists and committed just 12 turnovers. Against Houston, Fordham hit 10 three-pointers, making it four straight games in double digits, while tallying a season-low nine turnovers. Houston shot 40.7% overall from the field, the first time in over a month since Villanova on November 17 that an opponent had shot 40% or better.
 
Series History vs. St. Bonaventure
St. Bonaventure holds a 22-18 all-time series lead over the Rams since the latter joined the Atlantic 10 in 1996. Fordham has turned things around this decade, however, winning its first meeting since 2006 with a 62-50 victory at home in late February 2013. Since, the Bonnies have picked up just two wins out of 10 contests. Fordham is currently riding a five-game win streak, including last year's 53-44 win in Olean.
 
Kendell Heremaia Named A-10 Player of the Week
The junior needed just one game to earn her first career conference accolade with her 21-point, 11-rebound double-double, plus a career-high eight assists, in the rout of Samford on Sunday proving to be enough. Heremaia joins Bre Cavanaugh and Anna DeWolfe with weekly honors so far this season.
 
Striking the Right Balance
Fordham is seeing plenty of production spread around the members of its rotation. Cavanaugh is unsurprisingly leading the charge in scoring in eight games, but Heremaia (five), DeWolfe (once), and Downey (once) have also stepped up to lead the offense. Four different Rams have led the team in rebounding, six have led the team in assists, eight have had at least one game with a share of or the team-high in steals, and seven have led the way in blocks at least once, as well. Five different players have scored in double figures, with Cavanaugh, DeWolfe, Downey, and Heremaia doing so at least five times apiece.
 
Busy Bre
Bre Cavanaugh has started all 81 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 entered the all-time top-10 in scoring, amassing 1,377 career points, up to eighth all-time. The Allamuchy, N.J. native has racked up 3,102 career minutes thus far out of a possible 3,270 (95.0%), finishing each of the last two seasons within the top-10 in that category nationally and within the top-five this year. She's already moved into the top-10 for three-pointers, now seventh with 167, is fifth with 314 free throws, and is fourth all-time with a 17.0 point-per-game average. She has been held to single digit scoring just nine times in her career and has 31 games of 20 or more points.
 
Bombs Away!
After setting a new program record for made three-pointers last year, it's no surprise to see the 2019-20 Rams are one of the voluminous three-point shooting teams in the land, in the top-20 in total attempts and makes. The Rams have taken the 12th-most attempts (358), have made the 14th-most (117), and are 14th with an average of 9.0 per game. The win at Charlotte was a masterclass in long-range sniping as the team hit 48.4% of its 31 attempts, with the 15 makes ranking second-most all-time at Fordham and most away from home. Kaitlyn Downey hit 6-of-8 in the contest, the most by a Ram since Hannah Missry hit eight against Delaware State in December 2015. Heremaia leads the way with 30 threes, followed closely by 26 apiece by Cavanaugh and DeWolfe, and 25 by Downey. Heremaia is converting her attempts at a team-high 41.7% clip, while DeWolfe and Downey are each hitting 35%. Among their A-10 rivals, the Rams have hit the most threes with one fewer game played and are averaging a full make per game more than La Salle (8.0).
 
 
This is Our House
Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 104-31 (77.0%) record at home across 135 contests. Over the last three seasons, the Rams are 46-11 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 19-5 mark in conference play and three straight 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 73-68 (51.8%) on the road or on neutral ground during her tenure.
 
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. Despite the loss of Mary Goulding, the Rams haven't skipped a beat, with 30.1% of their 465 rebounds coming on the offensive end (140). Sophomore Megan Jonassen this year (29-of-49) and for her career (82-of-154) has more offensive rebounds than defensive. Sarah Karpell has 15 offensive boards to 13 defensive, only one of Katie McLoughin's nine rebounds have been defensive, and more than one-third of Zara Jillings' 20 boards have been offensive (seven). Six Rams have at least 15 offensive boards on the year, led by Jonassen and followed by Cavanaugh's 22.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
No stat better represents the Gaitley-infused defense than Fordham's 71-6 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 now reached 10 games with the win over Samford.
 
Cavanaugh Named Player of the Week by Three Outlets
Bre earned Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors on December 9 after averaging a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double over two wins last week. On Tuesday, she earned the same distinction from the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association and was named National Jesuit Player of the Week by the AJCU.
 
DeWolfe Named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week
The freshman from Cumberland, Maine was instrumental in the team's first two wins of the season, matching and then surpassing her season-highs in scoring and averaging 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.5 steals over 36.5 minutes, while shooting 48.4% from the floor and 41.2% from deep. She was named Rookie of the Week on November 25.
 
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
Atlantic 10 play continues with a midweek night game at Davidson, next Wednesday, January 8, at 7 p.m.