“It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there.”

Coming off a historic season in which it went 26-9, reached the Atlantic 10 Championship and played in the Women’s NIT Sweet 16, the Fordham women’s basketball team will put Mia Hamm’s famous quote to the test this year, when it tries to continue its success in the 2013-14 season.

This year’s team will be drastically different from last year’s experience-laden squad. When Arielle Collins, Charlotte Stoddart and Marah Strickland graduated, Fordham lost three players who together accounted for around 30 points per game. That is a little more than half of the team’s average.

As has been noted many times by The Ram, as well as media outlets around the metropolitan area, Fordham’s women’s basketball team has been making history this year. Record after record has fallen this winter in the Bronx as the Rams march on in one of their best seasons ever.

A big step in moving the program forward, though, is winning big matchups. Fordham’s opportunity came last Sunday, when the 18th-ranked Dayton Flyers came to the Rose Hill Gym. But, before their showdown against Dayton, the Rams had to travel to Philadelphia for another Atlantic 10 matchup with the LaSalle Explorers.

The game started evenly, as the teams traded the lead back and forth for the first 13 minutes. The Rams had a 16-15 lead when they rattled off a 9-0 run led by junior Erin Rooney, who scored five points in that span. Fordham held a 25-15 lead with a little under four minutes remaining in the first half.

After both teams scored a few more baskets, Fordham maintained its 10-point lead heading into halftime, at 31-21.

LaSalle started the second half on a 5-0 run, cutting the Rams’ lead in half, but it did not take Fordham long to respond. In a four-minute span, Fordham ripped off a 13-2 run to break the game open, extending its lead to 44-28.

The Explorers could not come closer than 14 over the remaining 15 minutes of the game. Fordham dominated on both ends of the floor and was able to get the lead to 20 as the game ended. The 69-49 win gave the Rams their sixth win in the Atlantic 10, the most the program has ever gotten since becoming a member of the conference in the 1995-96 season.

Four Fordham players scored double-digit points, including junior guard Abigail Corning, who had one of her best performances of the year, netting 17 points and six rebounds, five of which were offensive.

“It was a gutsy performance by Abigail,” Gaitley told WFUV after the game. “Erin [Rooney] picked it up when we needed her to, and then when [LaSalle] cut it to five in the second half, I thought Ace [senior guard Arielle Collins] made a great drive down to the basket.”

After taking care of business at LaSalle, Fordham looked forward to its big game against nationally-ranked Dayton.

A game that was supposed to take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday was postponed to 7 p.m., as Dayton had to delay flying to the New York area due to the weather in the area.

The Rams came out trying to prove they would not be a pushover for the Flyers, who were undefeated in the Atlantic 10 heading into the game against the Rams. They did just so at the start of the game, trading buckets with Dayton for the first eight minutes.

Dayton pulled ahead by four about halfway through the first half, which was the biggest lead for either team at the time, but Fordham fought back and tied the game less than 30 seconds later with a couple of foul shots from Rooney and a jumper from graduate student Marah Strickland.

The two teams were even for the rest of the first half, with no team gaining an advantage greater than three until late in the half. With the score tied at 27 with just under three minutes to go, the Flyers went on a 6-0 run to make the score 33-27, looking as if they were about to impose their strength and pull away.

Fordham had other plans, however, as Strickland hit a buzzer-beating three to end the half, cutting the Dayton lead to three and sending momentum back to the Rams.

“The first part of those games start with believing you can beat those teams,” Gaitley said. “We told the kids that by the eight minute mark in the first half we need to put them on their heels and let them know we’re not going away, and I think we did that at halftime.”

As promising as the first half ended for Fordham, that feeling went away quickly when the Flyers started the second half on a 12-4 run, extending their lead to 11.

Things would only get bleaker for the Rams, as Dayton extended its lead to 17 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the contest.

And then Strickland took over.

Over the next two and a half minutes, the graduate student from Maryland had 10 points, including a pair of free throws, two three-pointers and a jumper from just inside the arc as Fordham fought its way back with a 12-0, cutting the lead down to five.

Just as Dayton seemed to be pulling away again, pushing its lead back up to nine, senior Arielle Collins hit a three to keep Fordham alive, down by six with four and a half minutes to go.

That would be as close as the Rams would get, though.

Dayton would secure its lead as the game winded down, winning their 18th game of the year to go with only one loss (at Bowling Green on Dec. 30) and would continue to be undefeated in the Atlantic 10.

“We didn’t go away,” Gaitley said regarding the positive side to the defeat. “They had a 17-point lead, and we didn’t go away. For us to beat a team like that though, we have to have everybody contributing, and it has to be from one through 14.”

For Fordham, the lack of depth proved to be fatal, as both Corning and Rooney were in foul trouble throughout the game, and the Rams could not look to the bench to replace their production.

“Their depth wore us down,” Gaitley said. “We just don’t have the bench and I think that had a lot to do [with the loss].”

The lack of a bench is a very persistent problem for Fordham. Sophomore Christina Gaskin had just been cleared from injury the day before the game, and was only  able to contribute three minutes, while fellow sophomore Taryn Durant has only played sparingly throughout the year. Senior Charlotte Stoddart is day-to-day with an injury as well.

Strickland, Rooney and Collins all played the entire game for Fordham, while Corning and freshman forward Samantha Clark were not far behind, playing 36 and 37 minutes respectively.

Relying on only five girls makes it extremely difficult to beat better teams that Fordham will have to face.

“We just get worn down,” Gaitley said. “They [Dayton] had 34 points off of their bench while we had none. We just don’t have the numbers right now with Charlotte [Stoddart] and [sophomore] Emily [Tapio] out. What went from being a team of depth is now a team of injuries trying to get players back at the right time.”

The loss to Dayton takes Fordham to 16-7 overall, 6-2 in the Atlantic 10. The Rams look to get back to their winning ways on Feb. 13 when George Washington visits the Rose Hill Gym at noon. Fordham then travels to St. Louis on Feb. 17 for a game scheduled to start at 2 p.m.