Fordham Hits Wall

Fordham Hits Wall

#Fordham #Rams #BronxNews 

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, February 1- After having been victorious in 10 of their most recent 12 contests, the Fordham Rams women’s team (15-7, 7-2) ran into a defensive roadblock in the Duquesne Dukes (14-8, 6-3) that they could not overcome. 

Saturday afternoon’s game at the Rose Hill Gym on Fordham’s Bronx campus was the least effective offensive performance by the Rams since early season losses to Syracuse and Seton Hall. The win for the Dukes was their fifth in the last six contests.

A layup by Emily Tapio of Fordham began the scoring at 18:33. After the score was tied at 4, a 9-3 scoring run by the Dukes brought them to their largest advantage in the first half, 13-7, at 12:44. A 10-2 Fordham scoring run followed to give the Rams their final lead of the contest, 17-15, 6:02. The visitors closed the half with a 9-2 run to go ahead, 24-19.

Despite controlling the boards, 21-20, Fordham shot very poorly from the floor during the first half. They sunk only 8 of their 30 shots for a miniscule 26.7%. 

The Dukes continued their strong first half finish by scoring the first eight points of the second half to take their largest advantage of the contest to that point, 32-19, at 17:36. Five straight Fordham points cut the deficit to below double figures, 32-24, for the final time in the game. An 18-9 scoring advantage by the Dukes gave them their largest lead of the game, 50-33, with 6:12 remaining. Fordham ended the game with a 13-6 scoring run, but it was insufficient to bring the Duquesne lead to single digits.

Although the Rams improved their shooting percentage to 34.4 percent in the second half, they exhibited other weaknesses. They lost control of the boards, 27-16 in rebounds. The Dukes’ self-control kept the Rams off the free throw line. The Rams only took one free throw in each half while the visitors had 12 attempts from the charity stripe.

Duquesne’s leading scorer, April Robinson, again led her team with 18, 13 of them in the second half. She has scored in double figures in 21 of her 22 games. Amadea Szamosi led all scorers in the first half with 10. She finished the game with 15.

Hannah Missry led the Rams with 12 points, all on 3’s. Tapio scored 11. Tiffany Ruffin grabbed 10 boards.

The Rams will host St. Bonaventure on Thursday night. The Dukes host VCU in their next game on Saturday afternoon.