18th Ranked University of Dayton Stops Fordham, 68-57
By Howard Goldin
BRONX, NEW YORK, February 11- A heavy snowstorm in the northeast nearly postponed but did delay the start of the highly anticipated Atlantic-10 women’s basketball contest between the Fordham Rams (16-7, 6-2) and the 18th nationally ranked Flyers of the University of Dayton (21-1) by five hours. The Sunday evening game began at 7 pm in the Rose Hill Gym on Fordham’s Bronx campus.
The Rams, recording team statistics never achieved since joining the A-10 Conference nearly 20 years ago, were looking forward to a victory over a nationally ranked team to be taken seriously throughout the country.
The first half of the game saw the lead see-saw repeatedly and the score tied on 10 occasions. The largest advantage of the half was not achieved until the final minute of play when the Flyers took a 33-27 lead. The lead was cut to three as Marah Strickland sunk a three with five seconds on the clock.
Dayton made half-time adjustments, which allowed them to start the second half with a 14-5 scoring run that gave the Flyers its largest lead of the game, 47-35, at 14:28. Fordham immediately followed with a 14-7 run to cut the deficit to five, 54-49, with 7:45 remaining in the contest.
Most team statistics were close, but the disparity in several categories gave the win to the visitors. The Flyers scored 46 points in the paint contrasted with 16 for the Rams. Dayton took advantage to Fordham’s turnovers, scoring 18 from Fordham’s errors contrasted to only seven by the Rams. Dayton’s bench strength added 34 points, one-half of the team’s points. All of Fordham’s points were scored by its starting five.
Strickland led all scorers with 21points, which tied her career high. Erin Rooney scored 18. Arielle Collins netted 11, but was very active on defense as she tied her career high with six steals.
The next game for the Rams will take place at noon on Wednesday, February 13, at home against George Washington University. The mid-week matinee is a yearly event in which Bronx schools are invited to bring their students.
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