Women's Basketball Readies for Two Road Games in Four Days

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (10-5, 2-0) will seek to maintain its New Year momentum during its first road trip of 2023. The Rams will play at Dayton on Sunday at noon on CBS Sports Network and then at George Washington on Wednesday, also at noon, on ESPN+.
 
All ways to follow along with the action can be found at the schedule page above.
 
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 122 made threes and a whopping 130 steals! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
Talk about a photo finish - Fordham defeated VCU, 60-59, on Wednesday in the final moments thanks to a waved-off desperation bucket by Jennifer Ezeh. Just seconds before, Asiah Dingle had put the Rams up one with a silky smooth layup in traffic after a quick dump-off from Kaitlyn Downey out of the inbounds. VCU had led for most of the game as the hosts got off to a slow start, but Fordham continued to chip away throughout and eventually took its first lead late in the third quarter. The Rams created a seven-point gap midway through the fourth but VCU clawed back to tie the game late. As the teams traded free throws, the visitors went ahead on a putback layup before Kaitlyn Downey came up with a crucial offensive rebound with nine seconds to play, leading to a timeout and the aforementioned Dingle bucket.
 
Dingle finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-21 shooting, 3-of-7 from deep, with five rebounds, two assists, and a block, and was generally responsible for keeping her team in the game in the first half. Anna DeWolfe scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half, sinking 4-of-5 shots over the final 20 minutes, while Downey fell just one board shy of a double-double. Off the bench, Jada Dapaa notched six points, four rebounds, three assists, and three blocks.
 
Series History
The Flyers hold a 27-8 all-time series advantage since the Rams joined the A-10 in 1995-96. Fordham is 4-13 at home but just 1-13 at UD Arena, although the Rams have beaten Dayton in four of five A-10 Championship meetings, including the 2014 title game. Most recently, Dayton took both contests last year by a combined five points, 52-48 in Ohio and 48-47 in the Bronx. In those games, Anna DeWolfe was the only Ram to average over eight points a game, scoring 17.5 points, though Asiah Dingle contributed 7.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. The squad really struggled to a 28.8% overall shooting percentage, 21.8% from distance, and just 45.8% at the line.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 1/6)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 73.2 points per contest, which ranks 69th in the nation. The offense's 1.17 assist/turnover ratio, second in the Atlantic 10, sits 33rd nationally. The team's recent slump from distance has dropped the offense down from 12th to 41st with 8.1 per game and from 48th to 77th in percentage, now at 34.1%. The Rams are dishing out the 55th-most assists per game (16.1) while committing just 13.8 turnovers per game, ranked 42nd, and have the 138th-best steals per game rate (8.7) in the country. The offense is also hitting free throws at the eighth-best rate (79.3%) despite taking the 339th-fewest attempts (11.6).
 
Individually, Asiah Dingle is 16th in steals per game, 22nd in field goals, and 24th in points per game. Kaitlyn Downey is eighth in defensive rebounds per game, 42nd in total boards per game, and 19th in double-doubles. Anna DeWolfe is 62nd in points per game, 40th in total threes, 30th in field goals, 62nd in threes per game, and 45th 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 – 66.9% of the scoring on 43.3% 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 1,138 points, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,737 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,556 - 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 73.2 points per game average, 69th in the nation, is a perfect example of that. In fact, that would tie the historic 1978-79 squad for the program record. As a result, with another 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 79.3% free-throw clip would rank second as would their 1.17 assist/turnover ratio.
 
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 563 games played for its starting five with grad transfer Jada Dapaa adding 102 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 return home to host Duquesne next Saturday at 2 p.m.