This past Saturday, the women’s basketball team traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to face the Duquesne University Dukes. This game was a tight one with Fordham only winning 59–52 against a team that is ranked eighth in the Atlantic 10. With the whole active roster touching the court, the Rams were able to shut out the Dukes in the last five minutes of gameplay. This secured the Rams’ third straight win, showing why they are ranked third in the A-10.

Duquesne started off strong. The team was able to beat out Fordham within the first five minutes of the game, taking their largest lead by 11 points. They scored 18 points, and Fordham was having a tough time keeping up. Graduate student Kendell Heremaia was able to answer back later  in the first half, scoring a late three-pointer. This closed the gap as Duquesne led by just eight points after 10 minutes of gameplay.

Unfortunately, the Rams struggled to maintain this momentum throughout the whole game. Fordham continued to find difficulty connecting with points in the first half. Senior Asiah Dingle and junior Anna DeWolfe each had nine points. Dingle was only 3–10 on field goal attempts, but she had help from Heremaia with eight. Together, the three accounted for all of the 26 points the Rams had during the first half. 

Dingle and Heremaia each had four rebounds in the first half, doing what they could to minimize the second chance points for the Dukes. Junior Sarah Karpell had three rebounds, contributing to the team’s 18 first half rebounds. Duquesne also had 18 rebounds, but scored at a much higher rate 

The story changed in the second half when Fordham was able to get ahead of Duquesne’s efforts to stay in the lead. Dingle exploded for a double digit half, scoring 15 points. Heremaia and DeWolfe helped her out, with Heremaia scoring seven points, and DeWolfe scoring four. Senior Kaitlyn Downey also contributed with five points on her end. 

Duquesne shot better than Fordham with 50% field goal success. However, the team had a large amount of turnovers that allowed for the game to flip. Fordham took advantage of this and scored 18 points. This, combined with the 15 rebounds for the half, eight offensive and seven defensive, contributed to the win.  

Dingle stood out again this game with the team’s most points, rebounds and assists. Heremaia was right behind her with 15 points and five rebounds. The team’s eight steals showed its defensive commitment . Dingle had three and Heremaia and DeWolfe each had two, while sophomore Matilda Flood had the last steal in her 12 minutes of play.

Numerically, it’s not hard to see how and why Fordham won. This was not the whole story, though. While the game wasn’t solely based on points, the team had to come together and work as a cohesive unit. This meant looking at teammates for second opportunities and paying attention to how to stop the opposing team’s offense. Defense was a key factor in this hard fought win. Head coach Stephanie Gaitley noted this as well. She said, “We showed super toughness against a very good Duquesne team. We gutted it out and were able to show our best defense in the fourth quarter. [It] was a step in the right direction.”

The Rams have about a month left in the season with only five more games of regular season conference play. As they look ahead toward the end of the year, there is hope that the A-10 championship playoffs will go well this year. The team’s next game is this Wednesday when they will play La Salle University at the Rose Hill Gym at 7:00pm.