Women's Basketball Hosts George Washington Wednesday Night

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (11-4, 2-1) made it two road wins in two tries last week at George Mason and VCU and now return home to host George Washington (7-8, 0-2) on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Digital and WFUV. The game will re-air on SNY on Thursday at noon, as well.
 
Last Time Out
Fordham outlasted VCU on the road on Saturday thanks to a torrid first half and game-long stout defense. The Rams led 38-23 at the break thanks to a combined 23 points from Asiah Dingle and Kendell Heremaia, with leading scorer Anna DeWolfe adding just five of her seven points in the half, just the second time in the last season and a half that the junior has been held under 10 points. Fordham withstood a late charge by the hosts, who utilized 20 total offensive rebounds, but the Rams held on for a six-point victory, 54-48, by holding the (other) Rams to just 29.2% overall shooting and 26.7% from behind the arc.
 
Dingle led the way with 19 points on an uber efficient 8-of-12 shooting and a team-high five assists, plus six rebounds, over 37 minutes, while Heremaia posted a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double. Kaitlyn Downey chipped in 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting with three assists and two rebounds. DeWolfe finished just 3-of-15 from the field and 1-of-9 from distance, but notched four boards and two dimes. Read all about it here.
 
Series History with George Washington
The Colonials lead the all-time series, 20-9, since Fordham joined the Atlantic 10 in 1996. George Washington dominated with 16 consecutive victories until a 59-56 home win for the Rams in January 2011. Coach Gaitley arrived in the Bronx the next season and the Rams are 8-4 over their rivals since, five straight, including last year's 48-43 *nonconference* meeting a few days before the Atlantic 10 Championship that the two teams organized after Fordham missed a month due to COVID.
 
Triple D - DeWolfe, Dingle, Downey
Shut the front door! So far this season, the Fordham trio have been gnarly, righteous, dynamite, and, perhaps most importantly, the bomb-dot-com. All three already have one A-10 Player of the Week award so far this season. Combined, they make up 66.5% of the team's scoring on a combined 42.9% shooting overall. They are the real deal. For context for the uninitiated, this entire blurb is related to Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
 
Hungry Like DeWolfe
The reigning Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year became the 24th Ram to reach 1,000 career points on December 12 against Lafayette, doing so on a patented mid-range jumper, hitting nothing but net. Her season average is back above 20 after becoming just the third Ram to ever finish a season at that number last year, and has now scored 20 or more in seven straight games. At the end of her sophomore campaign, DeWolfe ranked 22nd nationally with 20.8 points per game, one of seven underclassmen in the top-25, and was 25th with 37.3 minutes played and 29th with 2.7 threes per contest. DeWolfe has started 63 consecutive contests in her collegiate career, beginning with her first game against #16 Notre Dame at home in front of a sold out Rose Hill Gym where she nearly triple-doubled (10 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists) in a close five-point loss to the Irish. DeWolfe was a three-time Rookie of the Week and All-Rookie selection that year while leading all freshmen in minutes played (1,152).
 
DeWolfe leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring (20.1 points per game) on 42.8% overall shooting, 35.7% from distance, and 85.7% from the line. She is second on the team with 42 assists and 26 steals, and is 2nd nationally with 38.1 minutes per game and 20th in points per game.
 
Variety Pack
The Rams have had three different Atlantic 10 Players of the Week this season. First it was Asiah Dingle after averaging 26.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.0 steals, and 3.0 assists over wins against Quinnipiac and Seton Hall to kick the season off. The week after it was Kaitlyn Downey after averaging 19.5 points at Notre Dame and against Michigan State, including a career-high-matching 24 points in the win over the Spartans. Most recently it was Anna DeWolfe, who scored 28 points in back-to-back wins over Stony Brook and Princeton, with 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals. It's only the third time in program history three different Rams have garnered the award and just the second time in the A-10 era - last year DeWolfe, Downey, and Heremaia earned Player of the Week at least once.
 
Kendell Here-oh-my!
Kendell Heremaia became the 23rd Ram to reach 1,000 points for her career, doing so at Seton Hall in the second game of this season, matching her career-high of 29 points and shooting a blistering 8-of-11 from behind the arc, just one off the single-game program record. Last Wednesday, she became the 11th Ram to reach 700 career rebounds, as well. The New Zealand international has since ascended to 18th all-time with 1,128 career points and 7th with 716 boards, and is also currently seventh all-time with 189 made three-pointers, with Suzanne Maguire ('97) next at 200.
 
Heremaia has racked up 1,128 points, 716 rebounds, 290 assists, and 125 steals over 131 career appearances and 104 starts, the latter two numbers ranking 5th and 9th all-time. Only six other Rams have reached the 1,000-point, 500-rebound, 200-assist, 100-steal plateaus, 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 and fourth-fewest rebounds and steals, but the second-most assists.
 
The Senior Captains
The two senior captains, Downey's third year and Jonassen's first, have been instrumental to Fordham's success in recent years. Downey, a three-time A-10 Player of the Week and a Third Team All-Conference selection a year ago, has never missed a game in her career, appearing in 99 straight contests with 93 starts. The Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. native is up to 844 career points, an average of 8.5 for her career, and 578 rebounds, a clip of 5.8 per contest. She has been a consistent shooter through her career, hitting 39.5% from the field (302-of-765) with a rate of 33.7% from distance, including a career-best 41.2% this season.
 
Jonassen, who has missed just three games in her career, is more known for her rebounding prowess, averaging 4.2 for her career with a whopping 228 offensive rebounds of 401 total (56.9%). A consistent shooter from the floor, whether its in the paint or a patented long jumper, hitting 44.6% of her attempts, she has put in tremendous work in becoming a better free-throw shooter: after making just 30-of-53 over her first two seasons (56.6%), she has been a 71.2% shooter from the stripe this year and last, including a mark of 77.8% this season. She is four appearances from her 100th.
 
Dingle All the Way
The Boston native was a shoe-in for the year's first A-10 Player of the Week award, averaging 26.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.0 steals, and 3.0 assists over 39.5 minutes of two exciting wins to begin the campaign. Through 15 contests, Dingle leads the team in assists and steals, is second in scoring and is fourth in rebounding. For her career across three schools, she has accumulated 1,230 points, an average of 12.9 per game, across 95 appearances and 78 starts. She is a 42.4% career shooting with 3.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 1/17)
Like last year, stoppages in play lead to falling down the national and conference ranks in many categories, so per-game averages take on an added importance. Among their Division I peers, the Rams are 32nd in free-throw percentage (.766), 65th in turnovers per game (14.3), 83rd in assist/turnover ratio (1.0), and 89th in turnover margin (2.53).
 
At the individual level, Anna DeWolfe is 2nd in minutes played per game (38.1) and 34th in total minutes (572), 20th in scoring (20.1), 9th in field-goal attempts (278) and 15th in makes (119), and is 34th with 40 made threes and 37th with 2.7 per game. Asiah Dingle is 85th with 2.27 steals per game and 71st with 34 total steals.
 
Chairwomen of the Boards
Fordham was beastly on the boards last year, averaging 38.4 per contest and with the 22nd-highest rebounding margin in the country (7.6), holding opponents to just 30.8 boards. The Rams grabbed 213-of-691 rebounds on the offensive glass, or 30.8%, and had six players with at least 17 offensive boards. Downey was 35th in the country with 10.2 rebounds per game and 11th overall with 8.5 defensive boards per game, while Jonassen was 20th with 3.9 o-boards per game. Jonassen (186-of-329) has more offensive boards in her career than defensive.
 
Through 15 games, Fordham is averaging 34.3 boards per game with a whopping 175 offensive rebounds out of 514 (34.1%). Jonassen unsurprisingly leads the way with 44 o-boards but six other Rams are already in double figures - Dingle (31), Prior (20), Downey (17), Flood (14), Nyborg (11), and Heremaia (11) each just behind her, all but the latter three averaging one per game or better.
 
Gaitley's "Most Challenging" Nonconference Schedule Yet
Fordham women's basketball head coach Stephanie Gaitley called this year's nonconference slate her "most challenging" of any of her teams in her career. It featured five predicted conference favorites (Quinnipiac, Baylor, Stony Brook, Princeton, Florida Gulf Coast), one runner-up (Manhattan), and three third-place finishers (Seton Hall, Michigan State, Houston), plus two NCAA champions (Baylor, Notre Dame), and six programs that received votes in at least one national preseason poll. Fordham had one top-25 win (Princeton) and four top-100 wins (Quinnipiac, Michigan State, Houston, Stony Brook), and finished nonconference 49th in the NET rankings.
 
Deeper Dive Into Games Won
Through 11 wins this season, the Rams are outscoring opponents 70.2 to 57.1 (+13.1). Fordham is shooting 43.9% from the floor and 32.9% from distance and converting nearly half of its two-point attempts (49.9%). Fordham is outrebounding foes, 35.5 to 31.0, with 130 offensive boards out of 390 total (33.3%). Opponents are committing 17.3 turnovers per game with the Rams notching 8.4 steals and 3.2 blocks per contest and committing just 14.5 turnovers themselves.
 
Anna DeWolfe is leading the charge with 21.3 points per game on 44.3% shooting overall, 36.6% from deep, and 85.7% from the line, leading the squad with 37 assists, one of four Rams with 30+ assists. Asiah Dingle is averaging 15.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.6 steals, while Kendell Heremaia leads with 6.7 rebounds and is scoring 12.6 points per game. Kaitlyn Downey (6.5) and Megan Jonassen (6.2) are also above six boards per game, too, with Downey averaging 10.5 points on 47.2% shooting and 44.4% from distance. Outside of Sarah Karpell, all seven players averaging 10 minutes or more are shooting over 40% from the floor, including two at 50.0% or above (Jonassen, Nyborg).
 
This Is Our House
Since Coach Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 127-34 (78.9%) record at home across 161 contests. Over the last four-plus seasons, the Rams are 71-13 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 34-6 mark in conference play and three straight Holiday Classic crowns. Sunday's loss to La Salle snapped a 12-game win streak.
 
60 is the Magic Number?
Fordham is 78-12 over its last five seasons when scoring 60 points or more, including an 8-3 mark last year and 10-1 record to begin this season. The offense has been clicking so far for the Rams, with seven of their wins coming with 70 or more points.
 
Class of 2026
Head coach Stephanie Gaitley has announced her 2021 recruiting class made up of four future Rams – Kaila Berry, Rose Nelson, Ashley O'Connor, and Faith Pappas. Read all about the incoming class here.
 
Preseason Poll
Fordham was predicted to finish third in the annual Atlantic 10 preseason coaches poll, totaling 163 points among the 14 head coaches, just behind Dayton (193) and Rhode Island (174). The Rams return four of their five starters and 91% of their scoring from a year ago, while adding senior transfer Asiah Dingle and Australian U19 international Millie Prior. Anna DeWolfe, the reigning Co-Player of the Year, was selected to the preseason All-Conference First Team, while Kendell Heremaia was named to the Second Team.
 
Up Next
The Rams head back to the road for two games in 48 hours – at Davidson on Friday at 7 p.m., the rescheduled game from New Year's Day, and at Dayton on Sunday at noon on ESPNU.