NEW YORK – An East-West showdown at the Rose Hill Gymnasium, Fordham University Women's Basketball hosts Cal St. Fullerton Friday night. The Rams will take on the Titans at 6:30 p.m. with the game streaming live on ESPN+.
For the Ramily
Friday will be a White Out, with all fans in attendance receiving a Fordham white t-shirt at the door.
Centennial Celly
Opened on January 16, 1925, the Rose Hill Gymnasium is celebrating its Centennial season, and throughout the 2024-24 academic season Fordham Athletics and the entire University community will celebrate the history of the historic collegiate facility, one of the oldest in the entire NCAA.
Matchup Notes
Friday will mark just the second all-time meeting between Fordham and Cal St. Fullerton, with Fordham taking the lone win in the series back on Nov. 21, 2003, an 81-43 victory for the Rams in The Golden State.
About Cal St. Fullerton
Going down to the wire in their first game of the season, the Titans fell 59-57 at Pepperdine on Tuesday, with Aaliyah Stanton leading her side with 13 points, ahead of 12 from Maddy Tauro on 5-of-9 shooting. The 2023-24 campaign saw Cal St. Fullerton finish 10-20 (6-14 Big West) under now eighth year Head Coach Jeff Harada, who returns Big West All-Freshman selection Eva Livingston, who averaged 4.8 points per game and 3.7 rebounds per game, while also collecting 29 steals and dishing 27 assists.
Opening Night
Leading the Rams in Monday's home opener, Chaé Harris tallied 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting including at 42.9% shooting night from beyond the arc, nailing three shots from long range. Harris would collect four rebounds and three steals as well, while Taya Davis would nab a career-high five steals, along with four rebounds and five points. Three other Fordham players would also tally five points apiece, while as a collective the Rams shot 40.9% from the field and 35.7% from beyond the arc.
On the Glass
Monday's opener saw the Rams pull down 33 rebounds, with a +10 margin on the boards over Adelphi. A common theme from Coach Mitchell's first year at the helm, 9-of-10 players who saw action against the Panthers would collect multiple rebounds, split nearly evenly among the team. A quartet of Rams would collect four apiece, ahead of another group of four with three rebounds each, and one final player with a pair of rebounds on the defensive end.
You Shall Not Pass
Last season, Fordham as a team led the Atlantic 10 in steals per game with 9.7 as a team for the year, with five different players averaging at least 1.3 steals per game. In their first action of the 2024-25 campaign, the Maroon and White collected 13 steals in Monday's meeting with Adelphi, led by a career-high five from Taya Davis, leading six different Rams to collect at least one against the Panthers.
Back at it in the Boogie Down
In their first season under the direction of Coach Mitchell, the Rams tallied the most wins by a first-year Fordham head coach in nearly 30 years, as the Rams went 13-17 (8-10 A-10). Rattling off a plethora of wins down the stretch in the regular season, the Rams would go down to the wire in the A-10 Tournament, falling one point shy of a trip to the quarterfinals to Loyola Chicago.
Mitchell's Rams paced the league all season long on the defensive end, finishing first in the A-10 with 9.7 steals per game as a team, 49th best in the nation, with five different Rams ending the year averaging above 1.3 steals per game individually. That effort in the passing lanes also helped Fordham finish third in the conference in turnovers forced per game, getting their opponents to cough it up at an average of 17.79 times per game.
Next Stop
The Rams will hit the road for the first time this season, heading to New Jersey Tuesday night for a meeting with Seton Hall at 7:00 p.m. in South Orange.
