The Fordham women’s basketball team took the court for the first time in 10 days on Saturday, but the Rams didn’t get the result they wanted.

Fordham fell 62-58 at Quinnipiac on Saturday after blowing a double-digit second-half lead at the hands of the Bobcats. Quinnipiac outscored Fordham 34-17 over the final 18 minutes of the game to earn the 450th career victory for the team’s head coach, Tricia Fabbri. 

Fordham got off to a slow start offensively, making just three of 13 attempts in the first quarter. The Rams’ defense kept them in the game early on, and Fordham took a lead early in the first quarter that it would keep for most of the rest of the first half. Fordham extended that lead to 13 points with a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Anna DeWolfe two minutes into the second half.

From that point on, though, Quinnipiac took over the game. The Bobcats scored the next 14 points to take the lead by quarter’s end. Fordham failed to score for nearly five minutes, and a third-quarter lineup of DeWolfe, sophomore guard Sarah Karpell, senior guard Katie McLoughlin, junior forward Meg Jonassen and freshman center Maranda Nyborg struggled offensively for the final six minutes of the quarter. 

The fourth quarter was close throughout, but Fordham spent all of the final 10 minutes playing from behind. McLoughlin’s layup with 4:34 to play brought the lead down to one, but Fordham could not convert on subsequent chances to take the lead. Three-pointers by DeWolfe and junior forward Kaitlyn Downey kept Fordham within two inside of a minute to go, and DeWolfe’s layup with 12 seconds left cut the margin to one. After Quinnipiac sophomore center Mikala Morris split a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left, Fordham looked to tie it.

McLoughlin dribbled along the baseline and tried to complete a pass to Nyborg underneath the basket. As she fell out of bounds, though, her pass went wide for a turnover. Morris’ two free throws on the next possession iced the game and the loss for Fordham.

Morris led all Quinnipiac scorers with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Bobcats junior guard Rose Caverly added 14 points. 

On the Fordham side, DeWolfe once again led Fordham in scoring. She scored 21 points on 7-16 shooting, including six points in the fourth quarter despite facing nearly constant double-teams from the Bobcats’ defense. Downey recorded her second-straight double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and McLoughlin scored a career-high 12 points as well. Fordham’s offense, though, was plagued by turnovers all game, with 19 in total and six in the third quarter alone. Quinnipiac outscored Fordham 16-7 off turnovers, accounting for the four-point difference in the game.

Fordham was unable to hold on to a double-digit second-half lead in its first time on the court since Nov. 25. Fordham was supposed to play Manhattan on Dec. 2, but that game was canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Manhattan program. 

Fordham’s next scheduled game is its home opener against Fairleigh Dickinson on Tuesday night at the Rose Hill Gym. The game will be a reunion of sorts, with former Fordham assistant coach Ang Szumilo returning to the Bronx for the first time as the Knights’ head coach. Fairleigh Dickinson had advanced to the semifinal of the Northeast Conference tournament last season before it was canceled due to COVID-19. Tuesday’s game will also be a homecoming for one of Szumilo’s assistant coaches, Lauren Holden, who served as the starting point guard on Fordham’s Atlantic 10-winning team in 2019.

Tip-off from the Rose Hill Gym is scheduled for 7 p.m.