Women's Basketball Hosts Rhode Island Wednesday Morning for Annual Kids Day

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Game Notes
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham women's basketball team (13-8, 5-3) returned to the win column on Saturday with a 17-point win over La Salle, 62-45. The Rams remain at home to host Rhode Island (11-9, 4-4) on Wednesday, February 5, at 11 a.m. in the team's annual Kids Day, presented by United Healthcare.
 
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
Saturday's game against La Salle was the Rams' annual Play4Kay game. In 2020, fans have the opportunity to pledge per free throw made by their team during the month of February. To pledge, fans can find their team on the leaderboard of the free throw challenge at KayYow.com.
 
Last Time Out
Fordham disposed of the visiting Explorers with a 21-9 fourth-quarter rush and never trailed in the contest despite La Salle getting within one point in the third quarter. The Rams started brightly with eight unanswered points and led, 17-8, after the opening 10 minutes. With a nine-point lead, 25-16, the Rams struggled to convert their chances towards the end of the half, allowing La Salle to get within four, 29-25, by halftime. Fordham's shooting woes continued in the third but the defense kept the visitors at bay for most of the period until a late surge got them within one, 37-36, with an 8-0 run, prompting a Gaitley timeout. The Rams held the Explorers scoreless over the final three minutes while scoring five points to gain some breathing room heading to the fourth. The three captains, Bre Cavanaugh, Kaitlyn Downey, and Kendell Heremaia, combined for 19 of the team's 21 points in the fourth quarter. Heremaia's layup with seven minutes to play made it an eight-point game but also kickstarted a 17-3 run the rest of the way until the Explorers sank the game's final basket, a three with under a minute to play.
 
Cavanaugh led the way with 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting, seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals over 38 minutes. It's her seventh 20-point game through eight conference contests this year. DeWolfe and Heremaia each fell one rebound shy of a double-double and notched a block and a steal in the game. The former scored 12 and handed out a game-high five assists, while the latter scored 13. Downey matched her career-high of four assists and scored 12. The Rams shot 41.9% overall but converted less than 30% of their long-range attempts for a third straight contest, hitting 29.4% on 17 tries. The Explorers, meanwhile, were held to 27.6% overall shooting.
 
Series History vs. Rhode Island
This will be the 39th all-time meeting with Rhody since 1996, the year Fordham joined the Atlantic 10. Both schools have 19 wins in the rivalry, which was dominated by Rhode Island early and has been all Fordham in recent years. Since Coach Gaitley took over in 2011-12, Fordham has lost just once, on the road, 71-56, in 2015. Otherwise, it's eight wins for Fordham and 10 in their last 11 dating back to 2010. In last year's lone meeting, Cavanaugh and Heremaia each fell one rebound shy of double-doubles, the former scoring a game-high 21 and the latter adding 10 points. Cavanaugh handed out four assists, while Heremaia notched four steals. Two seasons ago, Cavanaugh racked up the second-most steals in Fordham history, seven, with 20 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
 
Atlantic 10 Action
The Rams are 5-3 in league play thus far and outscored opponents by 5.9 points while shooting  40.3% from the floor. Bre Cavanaugh has been scorching hot, averaging 22.8 points on 45.5% shooting, 37.1% from distance, and 81.8% from the charity stripe. Kendell Heremaia's producing 10.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 2.8 steals per game. The offense has been fantastic inside the arc (46.1%) but have struggled from long distance, converting just 30.6% attempts, similar to opponents' mark of 30.4%. Cavanaugh has been fantastic from deep, and Sarah Karpell has hit 2-of-5, but the other three starters are shooting 29.0% or worse on at least 31 attempts. Still, the Rams are committing just 11.1 turnovers per contest and rarely hurt themselves.
 
Busy Bre
Bre Cavanaugh has started all 89 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 1,559 career points, now fourth-most all-time. The Allamuchy, N.J. native has racked up 3,410 career minutes thus far out of a possible 3,590 (95.0%), 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 190, is fourth with 341 free throws, is ninth with 514 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 38 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.
 
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-35 in total attempts and makes. The Rams have taken the 21st-most attempts (531), have made the 34th-most (170), and are 33rd with an average of 8.1 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 Bre Cavanaugh hit six at Drexel in the second round of the 2018 WNIT. Against St. Bonaventure, the Rams hit 10-of-14 from distance (71.4%), a fifth straight game with double-digit makes. Among their A-10 rivals, the Rams have made the most threes and are averaging almost a full make per game more than the school with the second-most, Duquesne (7.5).
 
This is Our House
Since Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 108-31 (77.7%) record at home across 139 contests. Over the last three seasons, the Rams are 49-11 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 20-5 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 74-71 (51.0%) on the road or on neutral ground during her tenure.
 
Defense, Defense, Defense
No stat better represents the Gaitley-infused defense than Fordham's 73-7 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 47-44 loss to VCU last January 16th snapped a streak of 16 straight wins. The team's 48-44 loss at Dayton broke a stretch of 11 such games, but holding La Salle to 45 points on Saturday put them back in the right column.
 
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. Anna DeWolfe was the team's first award-getter with her 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. 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 head up to Massachusetts to play the Minutewomen on Saturday at 1 p.m.