Women's Basketball Hosts Seton Hall Saturday

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (7-4) hosts Seton Hall (8-3) on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip on ESPN, SNY, and WFUV.
 
Ramses Challenge
Join the Ramses Challenge, a new philanthropic initiative supporting our student-athletes! Pledge a set amount of money for each three-pointer or steal this year, or make a one-time gift to the program. All proceeds are tax-deductible and go directly to Fordham women's basketball. Read more here. So far, the Rams have 100 made threes (averaging 9.1 per game – 16^th nationally) and a whopping 103 steals already (9.4 per game – 99^th)! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
The Rams never trailed in their 20-point win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday, defeating the Knights, 78-58. Despite shots not always falling, it was still an impressive all-around effort from the home squad, who began the contest with 17 unanswered points. The lead never dipped below 14 and reached an apex of 22. The Fordham defense contained FDU to just 36.1% overall shooting and a 3-of-19 line from behind the arc, while the offense shot 41.4% and 37.0% themselves, respectively.
 
Kaitlyn Downey led the way with her sixth double-double of the year, posting 17 points and 10 rebounds across 25 minutes. Anna DeWolfe added 16 points, three rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals, while Asiah Dingle scored 11 with five boards, four dimes, and two thefts. Off the bench, Jada Dapaa netted 10 points to go with six rebounds and a steal and Colleen McQuillen knocked down two triples plus a pair of freebies for eight points. Sarah Karpell handed out a team-high five assists and Megan Jonassen corralled four offensive rebounds of six total while hitting her seventh three-pointer of the year.
 
Series History
The Pirates hold a 7-5 all-time advantage over the Rams since 1977. Fordham won the first three meetings, all before 1980, before Seton Hall recorded five straight wins over the next 12 years. Most recently, the Rams defeated Seton Hall in South Orange last year, 82-63, on the back of Kendell Heremaia's 29 points, including her 1,000th, which included eight three-pointers, then a career-high before her record-setting 11 later in the season. Asiah Dingle posted an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double, as well, with four steals and three assists.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 12/16)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 74.0 points per contest, which ranks 71st in the nation. The offense's 1.19 assist/turnover ratio, tops in the Atlantic 10, sits 31st nationally. Fordham also makes the 16th-most threes per game (9.1) with the 42nd-best success rate (35.8%). The Rams are dishing out the 48th-most assists per game (16.4) while committing just 13.7 turnovers per game, ranked 46th, and have the 99th-best steals per game rate (9.4) in the country. The offense is also hitting free throws at the ninth-best rate (80.0%) despite taking the 336th-fewest attempts (11.8).
 
Individually, Asiah Dingle is 14th in steals per game, 25th in field goals, 35th in points per game, and 66th in free throws made. Kaitlyn Downey is fifth in defensive rebounds per game, 39th in total boards per game, and sixth in double-doubles. Anna DeWolfe is 73rd in points per game, 11th in total threes, 25th in field goals, and 26th in threes per game.
 
Triple D - DeWolfe, Dingle, Downey
Shut the front door! The Fordham trio have been gnarly, righteous, dynamite, and, perhaps most importantly, the bomb-dot-com. All three earned Atlantic 10 All-Conference honors and had at least one A-10 Player of the Week award last season. Combined, they made up 66.1% of the team's scoring on a combined 40.2% shooting overall. They are the real deal. Through three games so far, those numbers are similar – 66.6% of the scoring on 43.1% shooting. For context for the uninitiated, this entire blurb is related to Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
 
Three 1,000-Point Scorers
With her tough turnaround second-quarter jumper at Princeton, Kaitlyn Downey became the 25th Ram to score 1,000 points in program history. Now 22nd with 1,100 points, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,654 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,484 - sixth-most in school history). Nationally, the Rams are one of 11 schools with three active student-athletes with 1,000 career points, although they are the only mid-major school. Virginia Tech has four.
 
Asiah and Co. Steal the Show
You thought Asiah Dingle's five steals in the season opener was a handful? She doubled that with a program-record 10 against Saint Peter's, notching her ninth and 10th on consecutive possessions in the third quarter. Her previous best was six, which she'd accomplished several times over her career, including once with Fordham. The previous school record was eight, done five times by four student-athletes, but not since Lauren Fleischer in 2001. Her teammates added 11 thefts against the Peacocks to set a new single-game team record, as well, by three, with 21.
 
Are You Experienced?
Fordham's current starting lineup entered this season with a mammoth 488 career games played, unofficially the most in the country via asking national Division I SIDs. Behind them at the beginning of the year were Virginia Tech (431), Oklahoma (427), and UT Arlington (402, but 444 including JUCO). Fordham is now up to 543 games played for its starting five with grad transfer Jada Dapaa adding 98 off the bench.
 
Back-to-Back Players of the Week
Asiah Dingle earned the league's first weekly accolade of the year after helping Fordham begin the year 2-1 while averaging 17.3 points on 46.2% shooting, 6.7 rebounds, a whopping 5.0 steals, including a record 10 thefts against Saint Peter's, 3.3 assists, and 0.7 blocks all over just 27.7 minutes per game. Then it was Kaitlyn Downey's turn the following week, her third time winning the award, after averaging an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double last week with 3.5 assists, 1.0 blocks, and 1.0 steals. She also became the 25th Ram to reach 1,000 career points, at Princeton.
 
Raining Threes
From three-point land the Rams have been scorching all season long, shooting 35.8% as a group, which ranks 42nd nationally and third in the league. Colleen McQuillen (47.4%) and Megan Jonassen (46.7%) have been terrific albeit on limited attempts, but the Triple D trio of DeWolfe (39.5%), Dingle (39.6%), and Downey (38.8%) have been knocking down shots all year long from distance, combining for 79 triples thus far. If you took out all other players, combined for 5-of-44 shooting, that quintet is shooting 40.4% (95-of-235).
 
The Triple D trio have been somewhat inconsistent, however. DeWolfe has five games with four or more threes and Downey with five of three or more, including a career-best 7-of-12 performance against Fairfield, but each have three games shooting 20.0% or worse. Dingle, a career 26.7% shooter from deep, started the year 3-of-16 over her first four games. Before an 0-for-3 line on Sunday against FDU, she was shooting 52.9% over the previous six contests.
 
Captains +1
Fifth-years Kaitlyn Downey and Megan Jonassen, plus senior Anna DeWolfe, served as team captains last year. They will do so again this year plus new addition Jada Dapaa, who was voted as the fourth captain by her teammates. It's Downey's fourth year as a captain, most in program history after J.J. Radice's three years, DeWolfe's third, and Jonassen's second.
 
Up Next
The Rams wrap up nonconference play against former Ram Lauren Murphy's Post squad on Wednesday, December 28^th, at 2 p.m.