The Fordham women’s basketball team had a seemingly daunting task ahead of them on Thursday, as they faced the #11 Rutgers Scarlet Knights in New Brunswick and in the end Rutgers won 68-48, but not before the Rams put up a fight.
In rare fashion, Fordham jumped out to the early lead, after Rutgers scored the opening basket, the Rams tied the game at 2-2, when Becky Peters was fouled on a pull-up jumper from the foul line and made both foul shots. The Rams made it 5-2 when Arielle Collins buried a deep three-pointer at 17:23.
Abigail Corning then ripped off five straight points on a fade away jumper that beat the shot clock and a long three-pointer to make 10-6 for Fordham. The four point advantage was the Rams’ largest lead of the game.
Rutgers then went on an 8-0 run to jump out to a 14-10 lead. But after a 30-second timeout, Fordham answered. Christina Gaskin took the ball at the top of the key and drove in for a layup that brought Fordham within two, at 14-12, but Rutgers countered with buckets by Monique Oliver and Briyona Canty and the Scarlet Knights had an 18-12 lead.
The Rams halved the lead less than a minute later as Peters buried a three from the left side of the floor to make the score 18-15 Rutgers, at 8:31.
Beginning at the 8:31 mark, the Scarlet Knights went on a 9-0 run to take a 27-15 lead on Fordham. A pair of Charlotte Stoddart foul shots at 4:43 ended the 9-0 Rutgers run and finished a scoring drought of 3:47.
The Rams then used the last minute of play in the first half to score six quick points and make the deficit 12, 37-25 at the break.
The second half began with Fordham missing a couple of open looks and Rutgers capitalizing with a 9-0 run to make the score 46-25 at 16:57, forcing the Rams to use a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Gaskin got Fordham on the board in the second half with a three-pointer at 16:34. Less than a minute later, Charlotte Stoddart hit a short jumper and Rutgers led 48-30. The Scarlet Knights would get the lead up to 24, at, 54-30, when Betnijah Laney made a layup and drew the foul. She missed the free throw.
From there, Fordham used a 5-0 run with a three-pointer from Peters and on the next possession, Stoddart found Corning in transition, who beat the defense back for a layup at 10:22, which made the score 54-35 for Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights then countered with a 12-0 run that culminated with a 29 point lead, their largest of the game. The run ended with a Corning trifecta at 3:52, that made the score 66-40. The Scarlet Knights would win by a score of 68-48.
Peters led Fordham with 12 points and Corning finished with 10. The Rams are now 5-4 and have lost two straight. They face Stony Brook on Sunday, December 11, at 2:00 PM.
Game Notes: Emily Tapio saw her first action of the season…This was the first ranked team for Fordham this year…Their last one was #7/6 Xavier who beat the Rams, 77-55 on February 12, 2011…Rutgers outscored Fordham in the paint 46-6 and the Scarlet Knights bench outscored the Rams bench 27-5…Fordham was a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe in the game.
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