Women's Basketball Carries Five-Game Win Streak to Saint Louis

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (17-8, 9-3) will carry its five-game win streak into its second road contest in four days, at Saint Louis (15-10, 7-5), on Wednesday in a battle of two top-five teams in the Atlantic 10. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. EST during the Billikens' annual Kids Day event, with ESPN+ and WFUVSports.org carry live coverage.
 
Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer
In what has become a yearly tradition, the Rams wore yellow shoelaces for their game at George Mason to raise money and awareness for pediatric cancer research. Though it's over, fans can always continue to contribute. To make a donation, see Fordham's team page. To learn more about Go4TheGoal and its mission, click here. 
 
Play4Kay
Sunday's game at Richmond was the Spiders' Play4Kay game. Fordham has worn its pink jerseys in three games this month. In 2020, fans have the opportunity to pledge per free throw made by their team during February. To pledge, fans can find their team on the leaderboard of the free throw challenge at KayYow.com.
 
Last Time Out
After a wild comeback one-put win against Davidson, the Rams shook off a slow start to coast to a 17-point victory at Richmond on Sunday. It was the Kendell Heremaia show all game long with the junior exploding for a 29-point, 10-rebound double-double, plus three assists, a career-high three blocks, and a steal over 36 minutes of action. She shot a super efficient 12-of-17 from the floor, a new personal-best for makes, while shooting 5-of-9 from deep, tied for her career-high. Richmond led, 16-15, after the opening 10 minutes, though Fordham had finished the first quarter on a 5-2 run to get within one. A Heremaia triple put the Rams up to start the frame but the Spiders soon regained control, eventually leading by five following a 6-0 run, 23-18. Heremaia kept her team close with three long-range bombs over the final five minutes, the last one extending a lead that had been taken on a Jonassen putback layup, one of the sophomore's five offensive boards in the game. Fordham led, 29-27, at the intermission. The Rams dominated the third quarter with a 21-9 score, starting with eight unanswered points and cruised the rest of the way.
 
DeWolfe came alive in the second half, scoring 13 of her 17 points, and shot 8-of-20 from the field overall, a new career-high in attempts, adding six rebounds, three assists, and a career-high three steals over all 40 minutes. Bre Cavanaugh finished in double figures yet again, with 11 points, despite struggling with her shot at just 3-of-18 from the floor. Jonassen chipped in seven points and five boards over 21 minutes off the bench. The Spiders committed a whopping 27 turnovers, tied for 10th-most by a Fordham opponent, and the Rams scored 22 points off those turnovers, plus 16 second-chance points, thanks to 14 offensive rebounds.
 
Series History vs. Saint Louis
This will be the 21st all-time meeting between the two schools, with the series knotted up at 10-10 since 2005-06. The two schools traded five-game win streaks between 2007 and 2014, Saint Louis then took four straight, and the Rams have since won four of the past five outings. This is the third straight season the two schools have played each other home and away. Fordham won both contests a year ago, 56-53 away and 54-51 at home, the latter with Heremaia hauling in a career-high 16 rebounds. As a freshman, Cavanaugh scored 20 points in the home win over the Billikens then poured in a career-high 37 points over 48 minutes in the double-overtime road loss a month later, what would be the season-high among Atlantic 10 players that year and the fourth-most in a single game in Fordham history. Cavanaugh scored a season-high 27 points a month ago against the Billikens, propelling the Rams to a 23-11 fourth-quarter and a 12-point win. Over five contests, Cavanaugh is averaging 20.8 points per game against Saint Louis.
 
Busy Bre
Bre Cavanaugh has started all 93 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 joined the all-time top-five in scoring, amassing 1,629 career points, now fourth-most all-time. The Allamuchy, N.J. native has racked up 3,570 career minutes thus far out of a possible 3,750 (95.2%), finishing each of the last two seasons within the top-10 in that category nationally and doing so again this year. She's already moved into the top-10 for three-pointers, now sixth with 193, is fourth with 364 free throws, sixth with 536 field goals, and is third all-time with a 17.5 point-per-game average. She has been held to single digit scoring just nine times in her career and has 40 games of 20 or more points. She has played under 30 minutes just once in her career - a blowout win over Iona during her rookie season. This season, she leads the Atlantic 10 with 18.8 points per game, ranked 26th in Division I, and leads the conference with an 86.7% free-throw rate. She's in the top-75 for several categories nationally, as well, which you can see over the next few pages.
 
Nationally Speaking 
The Rams find themselves among the top-100 in several national categories in addition to their three-point shooting prowess. Despite taking the 12th-fewest free-throw attempts in the country (266), the Rams are converting at a 78.6% rate, good for sixth in the nation and what would easily be a school record. William & Mary is first at 80.9%. Fordham is also committing just 12.0 turnovers per game (12th) and have a 1.06 assist-turnover ratio, which ranks 52nd. The Rams defense has normalized and has surged up to 20th overall and tops in the Atlantic 10 with 55.9 points allowed per game. Gaitley's Rams have finished each of the last eight seasons in the top-50. One of the most voluminous three-point shooting teams in the country, the Rams have taken the 25th-most attempts (609), hit the 50th-most (188), and are averaging 7.5 per game (57th), all second-most in the Atlantic 10.
 
It's no surprise to see Bre Cavanaugh near the top of the minutes-played category, ranking third the country with 38.8 minutes played per game. Bre is also ninth in field goal attempts (406), 34th in free throws made (100), 22nd in free-throw percentage (.862), and 42nd in made field goals (154). Her 19.1 points per game rank 22nd overall and first in the Atlantic 10. Kendell Heremaia's 8.0 rebounds per game ranks 137th overall and second in the A-10.
 
Hungry Like DeWolfe
Freshman Anna DeWolfe earned her second A-10 Rookie of the Week award last Monday after helping the Rams to a pair of wins with 15.0 points on 50.0% scoring. She was also the team's first award-getter back on November 25.
 
3 and D
Stephanie Gaitley's Rams have dominated the all-time top-10 for scoring defense, holding eight of the 10 spots. The 2008-09 squad holds the record with just 47.9 points allowed per game and the 1994-95 team is tied with 2015-16 for ninth with 57.3 allowed. Those two years will soon drop out as this year's iteration is allowing just 55.9 per game, ranked 20th nationally and what would be fifth all-time in program history. Gaitley's Rams have held opponents under 50 points 82 times in 289 games (28.4%) and hold a 75-7 record in those contests.
 
Similarly, Gaitley's Rams are all over the top-10 for three-pointers made. In fact, they hold every spot in the top-seven, with last year's squad breaking the 2013-14 title-winning Rams by 23 (267 total). They also set the record for attempts with a whopping 826. This year's Rams are already up to 188 long-range makes, ranked sixth all-time in program history. The 2015-16 team is next with 205.
 
Atlantic 10 Action
The Rams are 9-3 in league play, are outscoring opponents by 6.7, and having the best scoring defense (53.7 allowed). The Rams are shooting  39.8% from the floor and 79.2% from the line, but struggling to just 28.3% makes from deep. Bre Cavanaugh has been scorching hot, averaging 21.0 points on 39.3% shooting and 89.3% from the charity stripe on 56 attempts. Kendell Heremaia's producing 12.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.3 steals per game, while Anna DeWolfe has c hipped in 12.4 points on a team-high 42.9% shooting. The offense has been fantastic inside the arc (46.4%) but have struggled from long distance, converting just 27.8% attempts, similar to opponents' mark of 28.3%. Still, the Rams are committing just 10.4 turnovers per contest and rarely hurt themselves.
 
This is Our House
Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 110-31 (78.0%) record at home across 141 contests. Over the last four seasons, the Rams are 54-11 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 25-5 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.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
No stat better represents the Gaitley-infused defense than Fordham's 75-7 record when holding opponents under 50 points during her tenure. Three 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 48-44 loss at Dayton on January 26 broke a stretch of 11 such games but holding La Salle to 45 points five days later put them back in the right column. Sunday's win made it three straight.
 
Cavanaugh, Heremaia Back-to-Back as A-10 Players of the Week
Kendell Heremaia picked up her first career conference accolade after nearly triple-doubling in the big win over Samford to begin this year's Holiday Classic, while Cavanaugh garnered her second award of the season and the sixth of her career by averaging 24.0 points with no turnovers in two wins two weeks ago. Bre also 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. The next day, she earned the same distinction from the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association and was named National Jesuit Player of the Week by the AJCU.
 
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. Lauren Holden, who graduated in 2019, immediately transitioned into coaching, joining up with former associate head coach Angelika Szumilo at Fairleigh Dickinson as one of her assistants. 
 
Up Next
The Rams return home for Saturday's marquee match-up with currently undefeated Dayton. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+ and WFUVSports.org.