Women's Basketball Begins WNIT Against Delaware on Friday Morning

Tournament Central
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Game Notes
 
Charlotte, N.C. – The Rams (12-4, 8-2) will be making their sixth WNIT appearance in the past nine years this weekend. Fordham will open the Charlotte region up against CAA regular season champion Delaware (21-4, 16-2) on Friday, March 19, at 11 a.m. and play either Clemson or Ohio on Saturday, time TBD. Every contest is available through FloHoops with all pertinent links available above.
 
50^th Anniversary
This campaign is the 50^th varsity season for the Fordham women's basketball program and Fordham Athletics will be celebrating all five decades throughout the year! See this release for more information. To mark this historic year and to support the program going forward, please consider making a donation today! Our goal is to reach 237 donors to celebrate the number of women who have donned the maroon & white!
 
Also check out the influential 1970's All-Decade Team, the high-scoring 1980's All-Decade Team and the recently announced 1990's All-Decade Team, which made it to four straight Patriot League title games, winning two, and the 2000's All-Decade Team.
 
Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer
Every year, Fordham women's basketball teams up with the Go4theGoal foundation to raise funds and awareness for kids battling cancer in our communities. The Rams wore yellow laces for their game against Saint Joseph's on February 12^th, although several players wear the laces for more than one game each year. All funds raised will be used to improve the lives of kids battling cancer by providing financial assistance, funding innovative research, developing and implementing unique hospital programs, and granting personal wishes. Fans can support a great cause and make donations at this link.
 
Play4Kay
Every year in February, women's basketball teams across the country don pink to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research and to celebrate those who survive with or have lost their lives to the disease. Fordham wore pink uniforms for every home contest last month. Please consider making a donation to help those in need.
 
Anna DeWolfe Named A-10 Co-Player of the Year, Heremaia and Downey Named All-Conference
Read all about the accolades earned by this trio, the first time in the Atlantic 10 era that Fordham has had three All-Conference selections and the second-ever time with two All-Academic honorees.
 
Series History vs. Delaware
This will be the sixth meeting against the Blue Hens since the series began in 1988, an 82-66 win on neutral ground at Villanova's Christmas Classic that year, with Delaware holding a 3-2 advantage. The two schools met for a home-and-home series in 2004-05 and 2014-15. Most recently, the Blue Hens won in the Bronx, 55-48, in 2015.
 
Last Time Out
The second-seeded Rams fell to #7 Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinals last Friday evening. Read all about it here.
 
Hungry Like DeWolfe
This year's Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year, sophomore captain Anna DeWolfe is 15th in all of Division I in scoring with 21.8 points per game, one of six underclassmen inside the top-20. The Cumberland, Maine native has recorded games of 20 or more points 11 times, including a career-high 34 points against Hofstra, crossing the 700-point threshold for her career against Rhode Island. She continues to impress for the Rams ever since her collegiate debut - nearly triple-doubling against #16 Notre Dame in last year's season opener (10 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists) in front of a record sold out Rose Hill Gym.
 
DeWolfe is shooting 42.1% from the floor, 38.9% from deep, and 80.6% from the free-throw line, and leads the team with 24 steals and is second with 47 assists. A three-time A-10 Rookie of the Week honoree and a member of the All-Rookie team, she was also named to the All-Conference First Team and All-Academic team last week. DeWolfe led all freshmen nationally last year with 1,152 minutes played, ranked 13th overall, and is above that this year, 8th among her peers this year with 38.1 minutes per contest.   
 
Chairwomen of the Boards
Fordham has been beastly on the boards this year, averaging 38.4 per contest and with the 17th-highest rebounding margin in the country (8.6), holding opponents to just 29.8 boards. The Rams have grabbed 189-of-615 rebounds on the offensive glass, or 30.7%, and have six players with at least 15 offensive boards, led by junior Megan Jonassen's 62 (out of 108 total). She is joined by Kaitlyn Downey (26), Matilda Flood (22), Katie McLoughlin (21), Sarah Karpell (16), and Kendell Heremaia (15). Downey is 37th in the country with 10.2 rebounds per game and 12th overall with 8.6 defensive boards per game, while Jonassen is 22nd with 3.9 o-boards per game. Jonassen (175-of-310) has more offensive boards in her caree than defensive while McLoughlin (35-of-75) is close.
 
Lucky Number Seven
Senior Kendell Heremaia has racked up 945 points, 612 rebounds, 244 assists, and 109 steals during her Fordham career to-date. That puts her in some illustrious company among Rams that have reached the 800-point, 500-rebound, 200-assist, 100-steal plateaus. Only six others have done it, most recently Samantha Clark ('16), but also featuring Becky Peters ('12) and Abigail Corning ('14) that have played under Coach Gaitley. Among that group, Heremaia has the second-fewest points but the second-most assists and the third-most rebounds already.
 
Kene From Distance
Heremaia is also climbing up the all-time three-point shooting categories at Fordham, entering the all-time top-10 for makes and percentage. Against UMass earlier this year, the New Zealand international became the 10th Ram to reach 150 career three-pointers, now up to eighth with 164, but recently fell just outside the top-10 with a 34.6% rate from behind the arc. She could potentially join the top-10 for career rebounds, too, as she is 91 away from passing Abigail Corning.
 
Go Off, McLough(lin)
Horrible pun aside, senior Katie McLoughlin has been an incredible story since arriving on Rose Hill from nearby Yonkers. Now a team captain, she has worked hard as a walk-on to establish herself as a locked-in starter for every game this year. She has made 64 career appearances but had never averaged over 4.6 minutes per game prior to this season, though she was in the rotation as a junior until suffering a midseason injury. This year, she is averaging 23.1 minutes per start and is taking full advantage of her time on the court, hitting 41.7% of her total attempts and 35.6% from behind the arc, second on the team in the former category and fourth in the latter. She is averaging 5.1 points per game and is up to 3.4 rebounds per contest with her first-ever 10-board game against Saint Joseph's. The 5'10 guard has 21 offensive rebounds this season and has almost as many for her career (35) as defensive (40).
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 3/18)
Per-game statistics take on even more significance this year during the ongoing pandemic. That said, the Rams have the 15th-stingiest defense in the country, allowing just 54.8 points, and are 17th in rebounding margin (+8.6), 19th in three-point percentage (36.8%), 21st in threes per game (8.6), 49th in field goal defense (37.2%), 48th in three-point defense (28.2%), and 51st with just 15.0 fouls committed per game.
 
At the individual level, DeWolfe's 21.5 points per game ranks 16th in the country and 7th in minutes played (38.1). Downey is 9th in the nation with 8.9 defensive rebounds per game and 31st with 10.5 overall boards per contest. Megan Jonassen is 27th overall and second in the A-10 with 3.7 offensive rebounds per game, as well.
 
Deeper Dive Into Games Won
In 12 wins this year, the Rams are outscoring opponents 62.7-49.5, a whopping 13.2-point disparity. Fordham is shooting 42.4% from the floor as a group and 38.7% from behind the arc, while holding opponents to marks of 35.1% and 26.3%, respectively. On the glass, Fordham has a 37.4-28.3 advantage. Anna DeWolfe leads the way with 22.3 points on 45.1% shooting overall and 41.3% from downtown, with a team-high 40 assists and 17 steals. Kendell Heremaia and Kaitlyn Downey are combining for 24.2 points, 18.6 rebounds, 70 assists, 28 steals, and 17 blocks, while Megan Jonassen and Katie McLoughlin chip in a combined 9.2 points and 8.8 rebounds. Downey has been especially impressive with a near-double-double of 9.8-point, 10.8-rebound with 13 blocks and 14 steals. Four Rams are shooting 39.0% or better from distance.
 
3 and D
Stephanie Gaitley's Rams have dominated the all-time top-10 for scoring defense, holding nine of the 10 spots with the 2008-09 squad holding the record with just 47.9 points allowed per game. Fordham is currently 15th nationally this season with 54.8 points allowed per game. Gaitley's Rams have held opponents under 50 points 91 times in 312 games (29.2%) and hold an 84-7 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 the 2018-19 squad breaking the 2013-14 title-winning Rams' record by 23 (267 total). They also set the record for attempts with a whopping 826. This year's squad is shooting 37.6% from behind the arc, what would be the sixth-highest mark in program history.
 
Rams in the Pros
G'mrice Davis ('18) and Mary Goulding ('19) are the two former Rams who graduated and currently play overseas. Davis currently plays in Poznan, Poland in the Polish EBLK. After spending time in summer camp with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, she signed her first contract with GAS Kalyvion in Greece and has since played in Australia, alongside Goulding, and Israel. Goulding signed with Sweden's IK Eos initially before moving to Australia, first with the Rockland Cyclones and currently with Bendigo Spirit. Lauren Holden ('19) immediately moved into coaching, joining up with former associate head coach Angelika Szumilo at Fairleigh Dickinson as one of her assistants.
 
Class of 2025
Head coach Stephanie Gaitley announced her four-player 2021 recruiting class last month, saying "we are super excited about this class… we really believe this group could leave a special mark on our program." The class is comprised of 5'10 guard Colleen McQuillen (Cresskill, N.J.), 6'2 forward Millie Prior (New South Wales, Australia), 5'9 guard Sophia Sabino (Rumson, N.J.), and 5'10 guard Lexie Tarul (Bronx, N.Y.).
 
Up Next
Fordham will face either Clemson or Ohio in the next round. The losers will face off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, while the winners will meet at 5 p.m.