Once again, Fordham Women’s Basketball has stepped on the court and shown their dominance. In their second game of the season, the Rams won again, beating the Seton Hall University Pirates, 82–63. It is all smiles and cheers from the girls as they start their season off strong. In their first travel game of the season, the women’s basketball team secured their winning record of 2–0 following stellar performances from the whole team. 

Graduate student Kendell Heremaia had a strong game that led the team to the win. Most notably, she notched her 1000th career point during Saturday’s game. She hit her first three-point attempts and was able to finish the game with the second-most threes made in a single game in program history, going eight of 11 on three-point attempts. 

During the game, it looked like Heremaia would sit out as she was dealing with injury. However, she was able to come back. During her run back on the court, she made two consecutive threes, the second of which secured her 1000th career point. She continued to play hard throughout the game with 29 points, tying her career high. Heremaia also had seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block during her 30 minutes of playtime. 

Senior guard Asiah Dingle performed strong as well, once again revealing why she is such a great addition to the team. Dingle had a double-double as she had 18 points and 13 rebounds. On top of that, she managed to have four steals and three assists. Junior guard Anna DeWolfe had her own significant number of points, contributing 16 out of the 82 points the team scored. Sophomore Maranda Nyborg added seven points, as she also had two steals and a block in her 12 minutes of game time. Making her first start and appearance of the season after an illness left her out of opening night, senior guard Megan Jonassen scored six points with five rebounds, a block and a steal. She controlled the team’s dominant inside presence, finishing with 30 points in the paint.

The Rams generated 15 second chance points with the amount of rebounds they had, 14 of which came on offense. Seton Hall had just five. The team’s 11 steals also contributed to points on the backend, with 22 of the team’s points coming off 20 Seton Hall turnovers.

However, it was not until the middle of the second quarter that Fordham started to really power through and take the lead. During this time, the Rams went on a 20–4 run, and they were able to secure their lead at 42–29 going into halftime. The Pirates came into the third quarter looking to take back the lead they had at the very beginning of the game. They came within two points, 51–49, at the beginning of the third quarter but no closer from there. Dingle was able to help hold off the Pirates with a late jumper that secured their lead, 58–52, going into the fourth quarter. 

In the last quarter of play, Nyborg and sophomore guard Matilda Flood helped contribute to the strong shutout that the Rams had, holding Seton Hall to just 11 points in the final frame. They added to the team’s 13 points off the bench as well. With help from the only sophomores on the team and Heremaia, Dingle and DeWolfe, the Pirates did not come within range as Fordham won by almost 20 points.  

The Rams beat the odds to start a challenging non-conference schedule as they have now defeated the predicted MAAC champions in Quinnipiac University and a Pirates team pegged to finish third in the Big East.

The ladies will continue on the road as they head out to South Bend, Indiana, to face the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish this Thursday.