Women's Basketball at La Salle Thursday Morning

Watch | Listen | Live Stats
Game Notes
Twitter Updates on @FordhamWBB
 
Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham (16-9, 8-4) remains on the road to play at La Salle (15-11, 6-5) on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Explorers' Kids Day game. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and WFUV.  
 
Play4Kay Pink Game/NGWSD
Last Saturday's contest was 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 was also a belated National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration. 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 207 made threes and a whopping 218 steals! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
Last Wednesday night in Amherst was yet another barnburner in what has become an every-game occurance between Fordham and Massachusetts. The contest included 20 lead changes and eight ties and a back-and-forth slugfest over the final two minutes. Ultimately it was Ber'Nyah Mayo's jumper with 11 seconds left that proved the difference as the Rams couldn't get a shot off on the final possession. Fordham had led by as much as 11, using a 23-point second quarter to go up, 41-30, with 1:33 to play in the half, but the Minutewomen hit three straight three-pointers to close the gap to two at halftime. UMass led for a large chunk of the second half but the margin was also within striking distance.
 
Fordham shot 53.3% from the field and outrebounded its rival, 40-27, with a 10-8 margin on the offensive glass, but the offense committed 19 turnovers, second-most on the year. Asiah Dingle was phenomenal, pouring in a season-high 30 points with a career-high 13 field goals on 19 attempts, eight rebounds, six assists, and four steals over just 29 minutes due to some foul trouble. Anna DeWolfe added 17 points, Jada Dapaa double-doubled with 12 points and 10 boards, while Matilda Flood, Colleen McQuillen, and Rose Nelson combined for 12 points, eight rebounds, and four dimes, coming up at least one clutch basket apiece. 
 
Series History
The Rams and Explorers have been playing for nearly four decades ever since Fordham joined the MAAC in 1983-84. La Salle was dominant in those early meetings, winning 14 straight. After six years apart, the two met once again in the Atlantic 10, where the Explorers again held the upper hand in the rivalry for a number of years. Things have turned for the better in recent years as the Rams have won eight straight until last year's impromptu loss, 72-61, at home, with La Salle filling in for Saint Louis, who pulled out of the game just days before because of a COVID-19 outbreak. Anna DeWolfe was terrific in that game, scoring 28 efficient points.
 
Iron Women
Kaitlyn Downey set the program record for career starts at Saint Joseph's, her 127th, in her 133rd career appearance, third-most all-time. Downey has never missed a contest, making all 138 appearances consecutively since arriving on Rose Hill. Anna DeWolfe made her 100th consecutive start against Richmond, like Downey all consecutively since she arrived in the Bronx, up to 104 straight, and Sarah Karpell appeared in her 100th game at St. Bonaventure. Asiah Dingle is also up to 134 games, too.
 
Where Do the 2022-23 Rams Stand In Program History?
Fordham is playing at a much faster tempo this season and its 73.5 points per game average, 52nd in the nation, is a perfect example of that. In fact, that would be a program record. The current record is 73.2, set in 1983-84, 0.6 better than the 1991-92 team. With a handful of games left, the team is also threatening in several other categories. The squad already has the ninth-most threes (197), the best assist/turnover ratio (1.20), and second-fewest turnovers (321). The team's 76.8% free-throw rate is also currently third-best all-time.
 
Nationally Speaking (as of 2/13)
Fordham have played at a much faster tempo this season, averaging 73.8 points per contest, which ranks 47th in the nation and would be a program record. The offense's 1.19 assist/turnover ratio, third in the Atlantic 10, sits 29th nationally, with the 33rd-most assists per game (16.2). From behind the arc, the Rams are 25th with 8.2 threes per game, 48th with 24.1 attempts, and 56th with a 34.2% success rate. The squad is committing just 13.6 turnovers per contest, ranked 45th, with the 60th-best turnover margin (3.32). The offense is also hitting free throws at the 30th-best rate (77.0%) despite taking the 345th-fewest attempts (10.8).
 
Individually, Asiah Dingle is sixth in steals per game, 11th in field goals, and 23rd in points per game. Anna DeWolfe is 32nd in points per game, 15th in field goals, 19th in total threes, 29th in threes per game, and 48th in minutes per game.
 
Where Do The 2022-23 Rams Stand in Program History?
Fordham is playing at a much faster tempo this season and its 73.8 points per game average, 47th in the nation, is a perfect example of that. In fact, that would be a program record. The current record is 73.2, set in 1983-84, 0.6 better than the 1991-92 team. With a handful of games left, the team is also threatening in several other categories. The squad already has the sixth-most threes (206), the best assist/turnover ratio (1.19), and second-fewest turnovers (340). The team's 77.0% free-throw rate is also currently second-best all-time.
 
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 13 games, those numbers are similar - 66.3% of the scoring on 44.0% shooting with two Player of the Week honors for Dingle and one for Downey. 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 14th with 1,231 point, she joins Asiah Dingle (1,933 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,754 - fifth-most in school history). Nationally, the Rams are one of 12 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 18.4 points per game on 43.6% shooting overall and 38.3% shooting from distance (69-of-180). 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 1,754 points.
 
For her career, across 104 consecutive starts, DeWolfe is fourth with 689 field goals, third with 228 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 against Richmond, now fifth with 3,820.
 
Dingle All The Way
The Boston native is up to 134 career appearances across three schools and four-plus seasons, now with 116 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 and league in scoring (19.4 points) and steals (84), while shooting 45.4% from the floor, 34.8% from behind the arc, and 77.2% on a team-high 92 free-throw attempts. Her 84 steals are already fourth-most in a campaign in program history.
 
For her career, she has accumulated 1,933 points, averaging 14.4 per game, 697 field goals, 310 steals, and a 417 assist/432 turnover ratio. She is a 43.1% 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 34.8% this year on a career-high 112 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, 14 ahead of the latter. She's also 12th with 462 free throws made and seventh with 637 attempts.
 
Princess Of Thieves
Asiah Dingle played in her 50th Fordham game against Richmond, where she totaled eight steals, tied for second-most in program history. She, of course, owns the record, too, set this year against Saint Peter's, with 10, and her 84 steals this year are already fourth-most in a single season. Dingle is Division I's active leader in steals by a whopping 14, with 310. She has at least one steal in all but two contests this year and at least two in all but four, with 13 instances of four or more. Last year she had eight such games and is up to 34 for her four-year career.
 
Downey Moving Up
The graduate forward broke the program record at Saint Joseph's for career starts, with 127, surpassing Samantha Clark ('17), and has now appeared in 138 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 14th now with 1,231, passing Cecelia Wanker ('83), Hannah Missry ('17), and former teammate and now assistant coach Lauren Holden ('19) at Dayton. She also fifth with 866 career rebounds, seventh with 211 three-pointers, and 10th with 86 blocks.
 
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 returns home for its final two games of the regular season inside the Rose Hill Gym. First up is George Mason on Sunday, February 19^th, at 3:30 p.m. in the team's Alumni Day and Senior Day!