Women's Basketball Readies for Reigning A-10 Champions UMass on Wednesday Night

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (12-6, 4-1) begins a critical five-day stretch against two of the top teams so far in the league standings, first against reigning Atlantic 10 champions, Massachusetts (13-4, 3-1), on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on SNY, 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 146 made threes and a whopping 158 steals! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
The Rams rebounded from a tough loss at George Washington with a resounding 21-point win over Duquesne at home on Saturday, 83-62, outscoring the Colonials by 20 over a nine-minute stretch between the third and fourth quarters. Fordham led 15-12 after the opening 10 minutes and held a slim 30-29 advantage at halftime thanks to a last-second Megan Jonassen layup, but the Rams went ahead for good on an Asiah Dingle fastbreak layup at the 5:20 mark of the third quarter. That was part of a 7-0 run to retake the lead and Fordham would lead by eight, 52-44, heading to the fourth. A 14-0 in the final frame blew the game wide open. From the 2:09 mark in the third to 3:26 left in regulation, the Rams scored 34 points on 11-of-15 shooting, 4-of-4 from deep, and 8-of-8 from the line with ust one turnover.
 
Dingle finished with her second double-double of the year, producing a game-high 24 points with 10 rebounds, three assists, and a steal across 30 minutes. Sarah Karpell netted a career-high 18 points while shooting an efficient 6-of-10 from the field, a career-best 3-of-5 from deep, and 3-of-4 from the line. Megan Jonassen swatted a career-high four shots, scoring 11 points, in 24 minutes, while Matilda Flood led the squad with four assists, matching her personal-best, with four rebounds and three points. The offense knocked down 32 field goals, tied for sixth-most in a game in program history, the sixth game this year with 30 or more makes from the field. Meanwhile, the squad only committed six turnovers, tied for third-fewest all-time.

Watch highlights of the win here!
 
Series History
Massachusetts holds a 25-22 all-time series lead since 1980, an 18-point Fordham win at the AIAW Eastern Regional. Fordham used 13 straight wins between 2011 and 2020 to wrest control of the rivalry, but the Minutewomen has taken control back with four consecutive victories since, including two at the last two A-10 Championships. Last year, UMass defeated Fordham, 66-63, in the quarterfinals. Kaitlyn Downey, with 24 points, and Asiah Dingle, with 23, were tremendous in that contest, combining to shoot 16-of-30 from the field and 9-of-15 from behind the arc.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 1/17)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 73.3 points per contest, which ranks 63rd in the nation. The offense's 1.18 assist/turnover ratio, tops in the Atlantic 10, sits 30th nationally. The team's recent slump from distance has dropped the offense down from 12th to 38th with 8.1 makes per game and from 48th to 70th in percentage, now at 34.2%. The Rams are dishing out the 59th-most assists per game (15.7) while committing just 13.3 turnovers per game, ranked 30th. The offense is also hitting free throws at the 20th-best rate (77.7%) despite taking the 341st-fewest attempts (11.72).
 
Individually, Asiah Dingle is 14th in steals per game, 13th in field goals, and 26th in points per game. Kaitlyn Downey is 16th in defensive rebounds per game, 78th in total boards per game, and 34th in double-doubles. Anna DeWolfe is 60th in points per game, 54th in total threes, 23rd in field goals, 78th in threes per game, and 39th in minutes 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 – 65.8% of the scoring on 42.7% shooting. For context for the uninitiated, this entire blurb is an ode 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 20th with 1,159 points, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,798 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,607 - fifth-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.
 
Where Do The 2022-23 Rams Stand in Program History?
Fordham is playing at a much faster tempo this season and its 73.3 points per game average, 63rd in the nation, is a perfect example of that. In fact, that would be second only to the historic 1978-79 squad for the program record (73.8). As a result, with another 10-15 or so games left on the schedule, this team will surely threaten the record for made field goals, both inside the arc and out, while the team's current 77.7% free-throw clip and 1.18 assist/turnover ratio would rank second.
 
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 578 games played for its starting five with grad transfer Jada Dapaa adding 105 off the bench.
 
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 travel down to Saint Joseph's on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip on ESPN+ and WFUV.