Women's Basketball Takes On St. Bonaventure, Loyola Chicago this Week

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (14-8, 6-3) remains on the road to kick February off with a meeting at St. Bonaventure (4-20, 1-8) on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. before returning home to host Loyola Chicago (6-15, 1-7) on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
Play4Kay Pink Game/NGWSD
Saturday's contest will be the team's annual PINK game, to honor and support those afflicted by breast cancer, while raising money for breast cancer awareness and research. It's also a belated National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration as the Rams will be in Olean tomorrow on the actual "holiday". Fans interested in donating to the Play4Kay foundation can do so at this link.
 
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 176 made threes and a whopping 195 steals! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
The Rams fell at Saint Louis on Saturday, 87-84, in the biggest combined score in regulation in the two school's 23-game history. The Billikens controlled the tempo for much of the contest and blitzed Fordham for 49 first-half points, fourth-most for an opponent in program history. The visitors were only down 11 at the interval, though, as their offense was finding its groove, especially in the third quarter, outscoring the hosts, 31-16, on 70.6% shooting. The Rams took their first lead of the contest and were up four, 69-65, heading to the fourth. A frenetic final period followed; the final media timeout of the contest was used for an official replay just 75 seconds into the frame and the two schools combined for just three field goals over the first four minutes. Kyla McMakin single-handedly propelled the Billikens ahead with a 12-2 start to the period, scoring 10 points, and Saint Louis would lead by as much as eight. Converting only 6-of-14 free throws allowed the Rams some leeway and the visitors, through Asiah Dingle, rallied furiously in the final minutes, the fifth-year guard hitting a banked three and then providing two straight steals that led to baskets with under a minute to play to tie the game, 84-84. However, Saint Louis would get fouled on the other end and see the rest of the game out with free throws.
 
Dingle, with 22 points, and Anna DeWolfe, with 21, led the offense on a combined 16-of-30 shooting, the latter hitting 5-of-6 three-point attempts. Kaitlyn Downey added 16 points, shooting 4-of-9 from deep, with eight rebounds and five assists, while Jada Dapaa, who tied the game at the end with a layup, grabbed eight boards, as well, with a season-high four assists, a number also matched by Dingle and Sarah Karpell. The Billikens ultimately outscored the Rams, 23-2, on second-chance opportunities, while scoring 50 points in the paint.
 
Series Histories
St. Bonaventure – The all-time series is 22-20 in the Bonnies favor since the Rams joined the A-10 in 1995-96 and was dominated for nearly two decades by them. Since 2013, though, Fordham is 12-2, including eight straight since. Each of the past three Januarys, St. Bonaventure has played in the Bronx; this is the first game in Olean since 2/16/19, a 53-44 Fordham win. Last year, the Rams won, 62-54, in the Bronx.
 
Loyola Chicago – This will be the third-ever meeting between the two schools, with each team tallying one win. The first contest was in January 1990 in the Bronx the year that the Ramblers joined the MAAC conference and, ironically, the final year for Fordham in the league before jumping to the Patriot League. That was a 79-68 win for the Rams. The most recent game came at a Vanderbilt tournament in 1999, a 53-44 Loyola victory.
 
Iron Women
Kaitlyn Downey set the program record for career starts last Sunday, her 127th, in her 133rd career appearance, third-most all-time. Downey has never missed a contest, making all 135 appearances consecutively since arriving on Rose Hill. Anna DeWolfe amde
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 1/30)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 72.7 points per contest, which ranks 61st in the nation. The offense's 1.12 assist/turnover ratio, third in the Atlantic 10, sits 42nd nationally. The team's recent slump from distance has dropped the offense down from 12th to 35th with 8.1 makes per game and from 48th to 83rd in percentage, now at 33.7%. The Rams are dishing out the 62nd-most assists per game (15.4) while committing just 13.7 turnovers per game, ranked 43rd. The offense is also hitting free throws at the 16th-best rate (78.2%) despite taking the 342nd-fewest attempts (11.45).
 
Individually, Asiah Dingle is eighth in steals per game, ninth in field goals, and 23rd in points per game. Anna DeWolfe is 31st in points per game, 19th in total threes, 12th in field goals, 31st in threes per game, and 36th 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 – 67.3% of the scoring on 43.2% 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 15th with 1,194 points after passing three former Rams at Dayton, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,876 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,703 - 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 one of only two mid-major schools, along with UMass. Virginia Tech has four 1,000-point scorers.
 
Hungry Like DeWolfe
The 2020-21 Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year and two-time WBCA All-America honorable mention, senior Anna DeWolfe is averaging 18.5 points per game on 43.0% shooting overall and 38.0% shooting from distance (60-of-158). Named to the Preseason All-Conference First Team, she became the 24th Ram to reach 1,000 career points on December 12, 2021 against Lafayette, doing so on a patented mid-range jumper, hitting nothing but net, and is now up to fifth all-time with 1,703 points.
 
For her career, across 101 consecutive starts, DeWolfe is fourth with 668 field goals, fourth with 219 three-pointers, fifth with a career 16.9 per-game scoring average, is eighth with a 82.7% rate the line, and has joined the all-time top-10 for career minutes played last Wednesday, now ninth with 3,715.
 
Dingle All The Way
The Boston native is up to 131 career appearances across three schools and four-plus seasons, now with 113 career starts, starting all but one contest for Fordham since she arrived. Last year a Third Team All-Conference selection and now a preseason Second Team honoree, Dingle leads the team in scoring (19.5 points), assists (68), and steals (72), while shooting 45.3% from the floor, 34.3% from behind the arc, and 77.9% on a team-high 86 free-throw attempts. Her 72 steals are already eighth-most in a campaign in program history.
 
For her career, she has accumulated 1,876 points, averaging 14.3 per game, 673 field goals, 298 steals, and a 404 assist/424 turnover ratio. She is a 42.9% career shooting with averages of 4.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. Prior to her arrival in the Bronx, Dingle was a 19.2% three-point shooter on 104 career attempts. Last year she shot 18-of-64 (28.1%) and has continued to work at her long-range shot, shooting 34.3% this year on an already-career-high 99 attempts.
 
Among active players in Division I, she has been in a three-way battle all season for steals alongside Michigan State's Stephanie Visscher and Gardner-Webb's Jhessyka Williams, but is currently tops in the nation, 17 ahead of the latter. She's also 12th with 458 free throws made and seventh with 631 attempts.
 
Princess Of Thieves
Asiah Dingle played in her 50th Fordham game last Wednesday against Richmond, where she totaled eight steals, tied for second-most in program history. She, of course, owns the record, set this year against Saint Peter's, with 10, and is already eighth in program history currently at 72. Dingle is Division I's active leader in steals by a whopping 17, with 298. She has at least one steal in all but two contests this year and at least two in all but four, with 10 instances of four or more. Last year she had eight such games and is up to 31 for her four-year career.
 
Downey Moving Up
The graduate forward broke the program record at Saint Joseph's on Sunday for career starts, with 127, surpassing Samantha Clark ('17), and has appeared in 135 consecutive contests since arriving in the Bronx. At Princeton earlier this season, she became the 25th Ram to reach 1,000 career points. She's up to 15th now with 1,194, passing Cecelia Wanker ('83), Hannah Missry ('17), and former teammate and now assistant coach Lauren Holden ('19) at Dayton. Against Wagner she moved into the all-time top-10 for career rebounds and just passed both Sharon Nast ('86) and former teammate Kendell Heremaia ('22) for fifth with 839. Also on Sunday she became the ninth Ram to reach 200 career three-pointers, now eighth with 205.
 
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.
 
Up Next
Fordham will seek revenge when it travels to reigning A10 champs, UMass, next Wednesday at 7 p.m. before an eight-day break.