St. Louis, Mo. – The typically feisty, defensive battle between the Fordham women's basketball team and Saint Louis lasted three and a half quarters on Wednesday before the hosts exploded for a 17-5 run over the final four-plus minutes to end with a 10-point win, 59-49, during the Billikens' annual Kids Day event with nearly 10,000 local schoolchildren in attendance at Chaifetz Arena. With the loss, snapping a five-game win streak, the Rams fall to 17-9 overall and 9-4 in Atlantic 10 play, while Saint Louis improves to 16-10 and 8-5, respectively.
"Great atmosphere and a tightly contested game for most of the time," Head coach
Stephanie Gaitley said, "They got hot late and we couldn't match them. We will learn from it and get ready for the stretch run!"
Fordham trailed for most of the contest but kept within striking distance, never falling behind by more than six points and mostly within three, before tying the game midway through the fourth and taking its first lead of the afternoon through a
Kaitlyn Downey three with 5:31 to play. After Myriama Smith-Traore tied the game back up with a free throw, Downey was fouled and sank each of her freebies to put the Rams back up two, 44-42. Kendra Wilken's layup with 3:51 remaining proved to be the game winner.
Saint Louis' Ciaja Harbison kicked the game off with a jumper on the first offensive possessions and the hosts soon found themselves up, 8-3, heading into the media timeout.
Kendell Heremaia broke the skid with a three to cut the deficit to two and the two teams traded baskets after. The Billikens saw their lead grow to five but Downey's three-point play to end the quarter got the visitors within two, 16-14. Downey hit a timely three in response to Rachel Kent's triple to open the second frame and back-to-back Cavanaugh jumpers made it a tie game, 21-21. The Rams continued to answer every Saint Louis make and it was a fourth Cavanaugh two-pointer that tied the game, 29-29, entering the intermission, the redshirt junior scoring 10 points in the frame.
The Billikens took an extremely defensive third frame, 10-6, with Saint Louis shooting just 30.8% from the floor but also holding the Rams to just two field goals, both from behind the arc. The lone bucket over the first five minutes was a three by Kent two minutes in. The first triple came from Cavanaugh in direct response to a Kent jumper and
Anna DeWolfe's long-range make made it one point game again, 36-35, with two minutes left. However, Jaidah Stewart splashed home a three with 35 seconds to go to push that back up to four entering the final 10 minutes.
It was Downey yet again who helped the Rams break through. After Cavanaugh went 4-of-4 from the line to start the quarter, the sophomore captain drilled a three from the wing to give the visitors their first lead of the game, 42-41. The second and final lead came on a pair of free throws from Downey out of the final media timeout with 4:41 to play. Soon after, Stewart came through with a tough floater to tie the game back up and Wilken put her team ahead for good less than a minute later.
Cavanaugh led the way with her 10
th 20-point effort in league play this season, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-20 shooting with three rebounds, three assists, and a steal over 40 minutes. DeWolfe also played the full contest, leading the team with four assists, but scoring just six points. Downey bounced back from a scoreless game over the weekend with her third career double-double – 16 points and 10 rebounds, plus two assists and a steal over 35 minutes. Heremaia chipped in across the board with four points, six rebounds, three assists, a team-high two steals, and a block in 28 minutes of action.
Megan Jonassen came off the bench with four rebounds (three offensive), two points, and a block in 16 minutes.
The Rams recorded a season-low 16 makes from the floor on the second-lowest percentage of the year (29.1%), shooting 7-of-25 from distance, but continuing to be one of the best shooting teams from the charity stripe in the country, hitting 10-of-11 attempts. Fordham was outrebounded, 43-31, but committed fewer turnovers, 13-11.
Fordham returns home to host undefeated Dayton on Saturday at 1 p.m.
