Women's Basketball Hosts Davidson in Regular Season Finale

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (16-9, 7-6) hosts Davidson (15-12, 6-9) in Saturday's regular season finale. Tip-off on SNY, ESPN+, and WFUV is set for 2 p.m.
 
The Stephanie Gaitley Show
Episode 4 can be found here! Click the link to catch WFUV's Dylan Balsamo and Coach Gaitley talk about the team's recent stretch of five games in 10 days, plus an interview with Coach and her son, Coop, and a profile of Kendell Heremaia! To watch the previous three episodes, click HERE to go to Fordham Athletics' YouTube page.
 
Pregame Twitter Live with WFUV
Instead of a pregame zoom, WFUV's Thomas Aiello and Kris Pursianen will be hosting a Twitter Live (@WFUVSports) beginning at 1 p.m. to get fans ready for the game!
 
Last Time Out
In the regular season road finale, Richmond came out strong at home and raced out to what eventually got to a 30-point margin late in the third period. At that moment, the Rams offense came to life, rallying with a 30-10 stretch over the ensuing nine minutes, including a 22-4 run over the first five-plus minutes of the fourth quarter to get within eight, 71-63. However, the Spiders regrouped and help on, with Asiah Dingle's six free throws over the final 4:15 amounting to all of the visitors' offense down the stretch.
 
Dingle was immense, finishing with a game-high 31 points, her second 30-point effort this season, while matching her season-high of six steals and adding six rebounds and two assists to just one turnover over just 32 minutes. She shot an uber-efficient 9-of-14 from the floor while knocking down 11-of-14 free throws. Kaitlyn Downey posted 12 points with team-highs of eight rebounds and five assists, plus two steals, while Kendell Heremaia added 10 points with three steals and two blocks. The defense racked up 14 steals, one shy of the season-high, while the offense committed just eight turnovers, second-fewest this year. Richmond shot 50.9% ovrall and 60% or higher in the first and third periods, holding a 47-31 advantage on the glass, and scoring 40 points in the paint.
 
Series History with Davidson
Since the Wildcats joined the Atlantic 10 in 2014-15, Fordham holds a 11-5 advantage in the rivalry, including a 6-2 mark in the Bronx. Earlier this season, Fordham defeated Davidson, 63-51 on the road. Behind a terrific defensive effort and tough rebounding, tallying 50 boards for the first time since 2015, the Rams pulled out the double-digit victory. Fordham led for all but 57 seconds, led by Anna DeWolfe's 20 points and 18 points each from Asiah Dingle and Kendell Heremaia. Megan Jonassen hauled in a team-high 10 rebounds, six offensive, while Sarah Karpell grabbed a career-best seven, three offensive.
 
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 at least one A-10 Player of the Week award so far this season. Combined, they make up 65.2% of the team's scoring on a combined 40.1% 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. DeWolfe leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring (18.6 points per game) on 39.9% overall shooting, 31.2% from distance, and 84.8% from the line. She is second on the team with 71 assists and 37 steals. DeWolfe is fourth in the nation with 38.2 minutes per game and is 44th in points per game. She has 14 games this year of 20 or more points, including a stretch of eight in a row earlier this year. She has also made at least one three-pointer in 48 consecutive contests.
 
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 just the third Ram to averaging over 20 points, and was 25th with 37.3 minutes played and 29th with 2.7 threes per contest. DeWolfe has started 71 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).
 
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. Anna DeWolfe has now earned the award twice this year. 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.
 
Kene Sets the Record
Kendell Heremaia missed her first three-point attempt at Massachusetts but was on fire from that point on, hitting five threes in the opening period and seven in the first half alone en route to a program and Atlantic 10 record 11 made threes, finishing with a 35-point, 11-rebound double-double and three steals, to boot. The previous school record was Denise Hammersley's long-standing mark of nine in a game at Lafayette in 1994. The A-10 record was 10, held by both Dayton's Lauren Cannatelli and UMass' Hailey Leidel in 2018 and 2017, respectively. The NCAA record is 14. In the game alone, Heremaia jumped from 6th to T-3rd on the all-time threes list, now solo third with 217 after passing current assistant coach and former teammate Lauren Holden.
 
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 then-career-high of 29 points and shooting a blistering 8-of-11 from behind the arc, now three shy of her new program record. Against GW, she became the 11th Ram to reach 700 career rebounds, as well. The New Zealand international has since ascended to 11th all-time with 1,244 career points, 6th with 775 boards, and 3rd with 217 made three-pointers.
 
Heremaia, now with 305 assists (11th-most), is one of just two Rams to reach 1,000 career points, 700 career rebounds, 300 dimes, and 100 steals - Abigail Corning ('14) did it, as well. Heremaia also has 143 steals over 141 career appearances and 113 starts, the latter two numbers ranking solo 2nd and 3rd all-time.
 
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 against George Washington in her 94th start. The Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. native is up to 895 career points, an average of 8.2 for her career, and 625 rebounds, a clip of 5.7 per contest. She has been a consistent shooter through her career, hitting 38.9% from the field with a rate of 33.3% from distance, including a career-best 36.9% this season.
 
Jonassen, who has missed just three games in her career and made her 100th appearance against Saint Joseph's, is more known for her rebounding prowess, averaging 4.3 for her career with a whopping 254 offensive rebounds of 460 total (55.2%). A consistent shooter from the floor, whether its in the paint or a patented long jumper, hitting 44.4% of her attempts, she has put in tremendous work in becoming a better free-throw shooter: after making just 20-of-53 over her first two seasons (37.7%), she has been a 69.2% shooter from the stripe this year and last, including a mark of 70.8% this season.
 
100 Straight
Kaitlyn Downey made her 100th consecutive appearance to begin her collegiate career in a home win over George Washington on January 19th. She is one of just 14 active players in Division I that have done the same, including Saint Louis' Ciaja Harbison. Downey has now appeared in 109 straight contests, making 103 starts.
 
Dingle All the Way
The Boston native made her 100th career appearance against St. Bonaventure and has started all but one game for the Rams so far this season, up to 87 for her career. The year's first first A-10 Player of the Week after 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, Dingle leads the team in assists and steals, is second in scoring and third in rebounding. For her career across three schools, she has accumulated 1,373 points at an average of 13.1 per game. She is a 42.0% career shooting with 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 2/24)
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 36th in turnovers per game (13.2), 58th in scoring defense (57.5), 65th in turnover margin (+2.8), 72nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.03), 74th in fouls per game (15.1), and 85th in threes per game (6.8).
 
At the individual level, Anna DeWolfe is fourth in minutes played per game (38.21) and 26th in total minutes (955), 44th in scoring (18.6), 10th in field-goal attempts (459), 24th in makes (183), and is 56th with 59 made threes and 63rd with 2.4 per game. Asiah Dingle is 57th with 2.32 steals per game and 53rd with 58 total steals.
 
Conference-Only
The Rams are 7-6 in league action so far this year, outscoring opponents 57.9 to 55.8, with four of those wins coming on the road. The Rams are shooting 36.1% overall, 29.0% from deep, and 65.5% from the free-throw line, while holding opponents to 38.6% and 28.6%, respectively. On the glass, Fordham holds a 36.2 to 36.1 advantage and have 169 assists to 158 turnovers.
 
Anna DeWolfe leads with 16.8 points on 36.3% shooting, 26.7% from behind the arc, and 20-of-23 from the stripe with 16 steals and 37 assists. Asiah Dingle leads with 26 steals and 42 assists and is averaging 14.6 points on 40.4% shooting and 32.4% from deep, while attempting a whopping 75 free-throw attempts, converting on 64.0%. Kendell Heremaia and Kaitlyn Downey are shooting 30.9% and 35.1%, respectively, from deep. Heremaia, with 6.3, and Megan Jonassen, with 6.2, lead in rebounding.
 
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.
 
Through 25 games, Fordham's rebounding totals are below last year's, averaging 34.7 boards per game, but are hitting the offensive glass even harder than a year ago, with a whopping 300 out of 867 total (34.6%). Jonassen unsurprisingly leads the way with 70 o-boards but seven other Rams are also in double figures - Dingle (50), Prior (36), Downey (31), Flood (25), Heremaia (20), Karpell (19), and Nyborg (15) 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.
 
This Is Our House
Since Coach Gaitley took over before the 2011-12 season, the Rams hold a 130-34 (79.3%) record at home across 164 contests. Over the last four-plus seasons, the Rams are 74-13 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 35-8 mark in conference play and three straight Holiday Classic crowns.
 
60 is the Magic Number?
Fordham is 81-13 over its last five seasons when scoring 60 points or more, including an 8-3 mark last year and 13-2 record this season. Seven of the team's wins have been 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 2022 Atlantic 10 Championship! Depending on today's results, the Rams will be the #5 or #6 seed and will play at either 1:30 or 7:30, respectively, next Thursday, March 3. The first three days' games will be on ESPN+, the semifinals on CBS Sports Network, and Sunday's final will be on ESPN2. Visit Atlantic10.org for more info!