Women's Basketball Heads to Manhattan College for Annual Battle of the Bronx

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (4-4) will seek to rebound from Wednesday's loss with Saturday's 53rd Battle of the Bronx, hosted this year by Manhattan (2-4) at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ 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 81 made threes (averaging 10.1 per game – 7^th nationally) and a whopping 79 steals already (9.9 per game – 76^th)! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
Fordham led for over 37 minutes of Wednesday's contest with Fairfield but the Stags never let the deficit dip above eight points and chipped away until a 5-0 run late to force overtime. Fairfield scored eight unanswered points to begin the extra period and saw out the victory with the margin never below four.
 
On a night where Anna DeWolfe's shot wasn't falling (nine points on 4-of-21 shooting), it was Kaitlyn Downey to pick up the slack, scoring a career-high 25 points on 9-of-19 from the field, including a career-best 7-of-12 from long range, the makes tied for fifth-most all-time. She added 17 rebounds, four blocks, two assists, and a steal all over 33 minutes, while Asiah Dingle contributed 21 points, her fourth straight 20-point game, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals. DeWolfe did hand out six assists with three steals and a block, while Megan Jonassen and Sarah Karpell each netted nine points. The offense's 79 shots were fourth-most in a single contest with the fifth-most three-point attempts, 36, and joint-fifth-most threes made, 13.
 
Series History
In the previous 52 meetings between the long-time local rivals, Fordham holds a 28-24 advantage sine 1980. The two schools played together in the MAAC in the 80's and the Jaspers held an 11-6 record during that time. It's been all Fordham, however, in the past decade, as the Rams come into Saturday's game on a 10-game win streak, including last year's 65-63 victory at home and five straight in Riverdale.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 12/1)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 76.8 points per contest, which ranks 53rd in the nation. Despite playing faster, the team's efficiency has been terrific, as seen by the squad's seventh-best free-throw percentage (80.7%), though that comes on just 8.4 attempts per game (341st), and the offense's 1.27 assist/turnover ratio, tops in the Atlantic 10 and 24th nationally. Fordham also takes the seventh-most threes per game (10.1) with the 31st-best success rate (37.3%). The Rams are also committing just 13.9 turnovers per game, ranked 53rd, and have the 76th-best steals per game rate (9.9) in the country.
 
Individually, Anna DeWolfe's 26 three-pointers are fourth-most in the nation, while Kaitlyn Downey's five double-doubles rank fifth. Asiah Dingle's 27 steals are seventh-most, while her 3.4 steals per game sit 16th. Dingle's 19.6 points per game are 32nd, DeWolfe's 17.4 rate 79th. Both have made 54 field goals on the year, ranked 26th. Downey's 9.8 boards per game rank 36th.
 
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 42.5% 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 1,067 points, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,603 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,434 - seventh-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.
 
Efficiency
The Rams have started out hot from the field to begin the season, shooting 42.4% as a group and 37.3% from behind the arc. The former number is 119th nationally, the latter 31st. Six Rams averaging over 10 minutes are shooting 40.0% or better from the field, led by Megan Jonassen (60.5%) and Colleen McQuillen (52.4%). From distance, Dingle (41.5%) and DeWolfe (40.0%)  have been on fire, the former even moreso over her previous few games, hitting 14-of-25 attempts (56.0%). Jonassen (6-of-11) and McQuillen (7-of-13) have been even better on less shots, with McQuillen leading the Atlantic 10. The team also has a 1.27 assist/turnover ratio, ranked 24th in the country.
 
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 528 games played for its starting five with grad transfer Jada Dapaa adding 95 off the bench.
 
Back-to-Back Players of the Week
Asiah Dingle earned the league's first weekly accolade of the year three weeks ago 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. Last week it was Kaitlyn Downey's turn, 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.
 
Downey Moving Up
The graduate forward became the 25th Ram to reach 1,000 career points at Princeton with a tough turnaround jumper in the paint. She's up to 22nd now with 1,067. Against Wagner she moved into the all-time top-10 for career rebounds, now tied with Suzanne Maguire ('97) with 737. She entered the year in 10th for career three-pointers made and is now eighth with 183. She also just joined the top-10 for career appearances with her 121st against Fairfield, while her 115 career starts are fifth-most.
 
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 head north to Anna DeWolfe's neck of the woods to play the University of Maine next Thursday night at 7 p.m.