Women's Basketball Welcomes Saint Joseph's to the Bronx Wednesday Night

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (13-5, 4-2) will look to get back in the Atlantic 10 win column when it hosts Saint Joseph's (6-10, 2-2) this Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ and WFUV, with SNY re-airing the game on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Friday at noon.
 
Last Time Out
Fordham saw a four-game win streak snapped in Sunday's four-point loss at Dayton, 52-48, on ESPNU. The Rams led for over 22 minutes of the contest and took a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter but the hosts chipped that margin down to four before a late Kaitlyn Downey three that made it a seven-point game, 45-41, with five minutes to play. After that, though, it was all Flyers, finishing the game on a 11-0 run over the final three minutes to steal the game.
 
Anna DeWolfe scored a game-high 14 points, adding four rebounds, three assists, and a steal over 40 minutes, with Asiah Dingle contributing 12 points, six boards, a game-high four assists, and her first block as a Ram. Downey failed to score but hauled in a team-high nine rebounds, while Megan Jonassen chipped in eight points and a pair of boards. Off the bench, Sarah Karpell grabbed four offensive rebounds of five total, Maranda Nyborg finished with three points, five rebounds, and a steal, and Matilda Flood grabbed two o-boards to go with a cluch third-quarter three-pointer. It was the first game Fordham committed single digit turnovers, just seven, tied for fourth-fewest in a game in program history and outrebounded Dayton, 41-40, but shot just 28.1% overall and 26.1% from distance.
Read all about it here.
 
Series History with Saint Joseph's
The Hawks hold a 38-13 all-time advantage over Fordham since 1972. Saint Joseph's won all five meetings prior to Fordham joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995-96. While Coach Gaitley was head coach of the Hawks, she was 12-1 against the Rams. Since Coach Gaitley took over the Fordham program, she is 10-7 against her former school, including four straight. In the most recent meeting last February, Fordham held the Hawks to just 36 points in a 51-36 win in the Bronx. It was arguably Kaitlyn Downey's best all-around game as a Ram, playing a career-high 39 minutes and posting 15 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals.
 
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 65.8% of the team's scoring on a combined 41.3% 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 (19.8 points per game) on 41.1% overall shooting, 33.6% from distance, and 88.9% from the line. She is second on the team with 50 assists and 29 steals, and is 2nd nationally with 38.4 minutes per game and 24th 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. Against GW, she became the 11th Ram to reach 700 career rebounds, as well. The New Zealand international has since ascended to 15th all-time with 1,163 career points and 7th with 735 boards, and is also currently seventh all-time with 198 made three-pointers, with Suzanne Maguire ('97) next at 200.
 
Heremaia has racked up 1,163 points, 735 rebounds, 295 assists, and 127 steals over 134 career appearances and 106 starts, the latter two numbers ranking solo 2nd and T-7th 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, making her 100th straight appearance last Wednesday night in her 94th start. The Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. native is up to 851 career points, an average of 8.3 for her career, and 595 rebounds, a clip of 5.8 per contest. She has been a consistent shooter through her career, hitting 39.3% from the field (305-of-777) with a rate of 33.3% from distance, including a career-best 38.7% 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 237 offensive rebounds of 420 total (56.3%). A consistent shooter from the floor, whether its in the paint or a patented long jumper, hitting 44.7% 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 (56.5%), she has been a 68.9% shooter from the stripe this year and last, including a mark of 70.0% this season. Wednesday night will be her 100th appearance.
 
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. This year, 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 1,275 points, an average of 13.0 per game, across 98 appearances and 81 starts. She is a 42.2% career shooting with 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 1/25)
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 37th in turnovers per game (13.6), 57th in free-throw percentage (.749), 70th in assist/turnover ratio (1.02), 72nd in scoring defense (58.4), and 83rd in made three-pointers (118).
 
At the individual level, Anna DeWolfe is 2nd in minutes played per game (38.4) and 3rd in total minutes (692), 25th in scoring (19.8), 3rd in field-goal attempts (338) and 10th in makes (139), and is 24th with 47 made threes and 37th with 2.6 per game. Asiah Dingle is 135th with 2.06 steals per game, 85th with 37 total steals, and 101st with 59 free throws.
 
Conference-Only
The Rams are 4-2 in league action so far this year, outscoring opponents 60.2 to 56.5, with three of those wins coming on the road. The Rams are shooting 38.3% overall, 30.5% from deep, and 68.5% from the free-throw line, while holding opponents to 36.1% and 29.4%, respectively. On the glass, Fordham holds a 40.2 to 34.3 advantage and have 78 assists to opponents' 49, while commiting just 72 turnovers.
 
Anna DeWolfe leads with 18.7 points on 36.2% shooting, 28.8% from behind the arc, and a perfect 13-of-13 from the stripe with a team-high eight steals and the second-most assists (16). Asiah Dingle leads with 19 assists and is averaging 15.3 points on 41.0% shooting and 38.5% from deep, while attempting a whopping 34 free-throw attempts, converting on 67.6%. Kendell Heremaia has 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, while Kaitlyn Downey adds 6.8 points and 5.8 boards and Megan Jonassen has 20-of-40 rebounds (6.7 per game) with 5.2 points. Sarah Karpell has been fantastic recently, grabbing 10-of-16 rebounds on the offensive end with seven assists over 25.3 minutes.
 
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 (228-of-403) has more offensive boards in her career than defensive (56.4%).
 
Through 18 games, Fordham is averaging 35.4 boards per game with a whopping 219 offensive rebounds out of 637 (34.4%). Jonassen unsurprisingly leads the way with 53 o-boards but seven other Rams are in double figures - Dingle (36), Prior (20), Downey (20), Flood (20), Heremaia (15), Karpell (16), and Nyborg (14) 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
In 13 wins this season, the Rams are outscoring opponents 68.9 to 56.3 (+12.6). Fordham is shooting 43.4% from the floor and 32.9% from distance and converting nearly half of its two-point attempts (49.2%). Fordham is outrebounding foes, 36.3 to 30.7, with 161 offensive boards out of 472 total (34.1%). Opponents are committing 16.2 turnovers per game with the Rams notching 8.0 steals and 3.2 blocks per contest and committing just 14.1 turnovers themselves.
 
Anna DeWolfe is leading the charge with 21.2 points per game on 43.4% shooting overall, 34.3% from deep, and 88.0% from the line, leading the squad with 42 assists, one of four Rams with 34+ assists. Asiah Dingle is averaging 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 2.4 steals. Three Rams are averaging between six and seven rebounds per game - Kendell Heremaia with 6.8, Megan Jonassen with 6.6, and Kaitlyn Downey with 6.2. Heremaia adds 13.0 points and 3.0 assists. Nyborg is shooting a team-high 53.8% on limited shooting with Jonassen behind here at 51.1%. Outside of Sarah Karpell and Matilda Flood, all seven players averaging 10 minutes or more are shooting over 40% from the floor.
 
This Is Our House
Since Coach Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 128-34 (78.9%) record at home across 162 contests. Over the last four-plus seasons, the Rams are 72-13 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 34-6 mark in conference play and three straight Holiday Classic crowns. The loss to La Salle snapped a 12-game win streak.
 
60 is the Magic Number?
Fordham is 80-12 over its last five seasons when scoring 60 points or more, including an 8-3 mark last year and 12-1 record 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 host St. Bonaventure this Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ and WFUV.