Women's Basketball Hosts Bucknell in WNIT Opening Round on Friday Night

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (18-10, 8-6) have earned its seventh WNIT bid in the past 10 years and will host Bucknell (23-9, 12-6) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in the opening round on SNY, ESPN3, and WFUV.
 
Updated Fan Policy
Fans are now allowed to attend home events but MUST show proof of vaccination upon arrival to campus. For complete information on our new policies, please click here.

DeWolfe, Dingle, Downey Earn All-Conference Honors
Anna DeWolfe was named First Team All-Conference for a second consecutive season, Asiah Dingle was named to the Third Team, and Kaitlyn Downey earned her second straight All-Academic nod, as well. Read all about their awards and their seasons here.
 
Last Time Out
The sixth-seeded Rams cruised past #14 George Mason by 16 points in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championship before falling to eventual champions, #3 Massachusetts, 66-63, in the quarterfinals. In the former, Kendell Heremaia posted a team-high 22 points while Asiah Dingle notched her third career double-double (all this season) with 17 points and 12 rebounds, plus a game-high three steals. George Mason shot 17-of-19 from the free-throw line but was held to just 27.6% shooting from the field.
 
Again UMass, Dingle and Kaitlyn Downey were scorching hot in the first half, combining for 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 5-of-5 from behind the arc to lead, 30-23, at the interval. The third quarter was a back-and-forth offensive affair that the Minutewomen won by three, 23-20, shooting 72.7% from the floor although Fordham kept pace by shooting 53.3%, but just 1-of-4 from the stripe. The Rams struggled on offense in the fourth, shooting just 19.0% on nine extra attempts. Sam Breen and UMass took the lead and held on despite a late Dingle triple that cut the deficit to just one late, 64-63.
 
Downey matched her career-high of 24 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 5-of-9 from distance, with seven boards. Dingle contributed 23 points, hitting two more threes than her previous season-high and shooting 4-of-6 from deep with seven rebounds, four assists, and a steal. Megan Jonassen hauled in nine rebounds to lead the team, all on the offensive glass, while Anna DeWolfe and Heremaia combined for 14 points.
 
Series History with Bucknell
Fordham is 16-6 all-time against the Bison, including a 9-1 mark inside the friendly confines of the Rose Hill Gym, dating back to 1983. During the five years the two schools were in the Patriot League together, the Rams won 11 of 12 contests. Under Coach Gaitley, Fordham is 1-1 against the Bison - a 49-39 loss on the road in her first season and, most recently, a 71-62 win in the Bronx in 2017. Then-freshman Kendell Heremaia played 17 minutes off the bench in that one, scoring six points, while current assistant coach Lauren Holden produced 14 points and six assists.
 
9* Postseason Berths in 10 Years
Including the 2019-20 season that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic in which the Rams would have earned a WNIT bid, this is the sixth consecutive season in which Fordham has played in the postseason, five of which have come in the WNIT. In 11 years total under Coach Gaitley, the Rams have earned seven WNIT bids and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. Prior to her arrival, the program had seen just one postseason berth since 1980 - the 1994 NCAA Tournament after winning the Patriot League.
 
 
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 this season. Combined, they make up 66.1% of the team's scoring on a combined 40.2% 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
Last year's 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 is second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring (18.0 points per game) on 38.9% overall shooting, 29.9% from distance, and 84.3% from the line. She is second on the team with 76 assists and 43 steals. DeWolfe is fourth in the nation with 38.4 minutes per game and is 55th 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 saw a 48-game stretch ended against Davidson with at least one three-pointer made per game.
 
For her career, across 78 consecutive starts, DeWolfe is up to 10th all-time with 1,282 points and recently entered the top-10 for career field goals, 10th with 503. She is also fifth with a career 16.4 per-game scoring average and is just outside the top-10 for threes, 11th with 156. After leading all freshmen two seasons ago in total minutes played, she became the third Ram to average over 20 points for a season as a sophomore.
 
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. In the game alone, Heremaia jumped from 6th to T-3rd on the all-time threes list, now solo third with 223 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 1,281 career points, 6th with 789 boards, and 3rd with 223 made three-pointers.
 
Heremaia, now with 315 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 145 steals over 144 career appearances and 116 starts, the latter two numbers ranking solo 2nd and 3rd all-time. She is two appearances from tying Denise Hammersley's record.
 
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, Third Team All-Conference selection a year ago, and now a two-time All-Academic honoree, 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 944 career points, an average of 8.4 for her career, and 648 rebounds, a clip of 5.8 per contest. She has been a consistent shooter through her career, hitting 39.5% from the field with a rate of 33.8% from distance, including a career-best 37.9% 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 4.4 for her career with a whopping 266 offensive rebounds of 482 total (55.2%). A consistent shooter from the floor, whether its in the paint or a patented long jumper, hitting 44.3% 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 68.1% shooter from the stripe this year and last, including a mark of 67.9% 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 112 straight contests, making 106 starts, the latter now tied for eighth all-time.
 
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 90 for her career. The year's first first A-10 Player of the Week finished the regular season in style with a Third Team All-Conference nod, 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 1,428 points, averaging 13.2 per game, 501 field goals, 222 steals and a 330 assist/344 turnover ratio. She is a 42.0% career shooting with averages of 3.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 3/17)
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 46th in turnovers per game (13.2), 53rd in scoring defense (57.5), 66th in assist/turnover ratio (1.04), 69th in fouls per game (15.0), 75th in turnover margin (+2.50), and 82nd in threes per game (6.9).
 
At the individual level, Anna DeWolfe is fourth in minutes played per game (38.28) and 35th in total minutes (995), 46th in scoring (18.6), 11th in field-goal attempts (477), 27th in makes (190), and is 79th with 59 made threes and 78th with 2.3 per game. Asiah Dingle is 72nd with 2.23 steals per game and 74th with 58 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.
 
This year, Fordham's rebounding totals are below last year's, averaging 34.9 boards per game, but are hitting the offensive glass even harder than a year ago, with a whopping 339 out of 978 total (34.7%). Jonassen unsurprisingly leads the way with 82 o-boards but seven other Rams are also in double figures - Dingle (58), Prior (40), Downey (35), Flood (25), Karpell (23), Heremaia (22),  and Nyborg (15) each just behind her, the first four 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 131-34 (79.4%) record at home across 165 contests. Over the last four-plus seasons, the Rams are 75-13 in the Rose Hill Gym, including a 36-8 mark in conference play and three straight Holiday Classic crowns.
 
60 is the Magic Number?
Fordham is 83-14 over its last five seasons when scoring 60 points or more, including an 8-3 mark last year and 15-3 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.