{"id":4223,"date":"2020-04-04T14:11:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2020-04-04T14:11:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:11:32","slug":"womens-basketball-suffers-blowout-loss-at-columbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=4223","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball Suffers Blowout Loss at Columbia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fordham Women\u2019s Basketball played a heart-stopping, emotional and taxing game against Notre Dame last Tuesday. Entering Sunday\u2019s matchup against Columbia, the Rams and head coach Stephanie Gaitley were concerned with a letdown against a tough team, especially coming off the high of taking the Irish down to the wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, Fordham\u2019s fears became a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rams fell 70\u201351 to Columbia at Levien Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon after being outscored by 18 points in the second half. Fordham got off to a slow start in the first quarter, as the host Lions carried a seven-point lead into the first media timeout, halfway through the first quarter. Fordham trimmed the deficit to one by the end of the quarter, and the Rams were up 31\u201327 with a minute to play before half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, Columbia sophomore Madison Hardy took over, with a deep three and a nifty reverse layup in a span of under a minute to give Columbia a one-point lead heading into halftime. Fordham regained a 35\u201334 lead two minutes into the second half when junior Kendell Heremaia made a layup underneath. On the next possession, Columbia sophomore Mikayla Markham countered with a lay-in of her own and the lead changed hands once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Columbia\u2019s dominance, Markham\u2019s layup precipitated the final lead change of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbia started to pull away late in the third quarter, outscoring Fordham 19\u201312 over the course of 10 minutes. In the fourth and final quarter, back-to-back threes from Hardy and junior Madison Pack gave the Lions a 14-point lead, and Fordham was unable to get back within less than 11 points for the rest of the game. The Rams scored just eight points in the quarter and multiple defensive lapses allowed Columbia to run away with a 70\u201351 victory and hand the Rams their second-straight loss to start the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offensively, Fordham struggled again with making shots. However, last Tuesday\u2019s season-opener with Notre Dame showed that Fordham could stay in games with anyone if the team could defend. On Sunday, the second part of that equation went out the window, with Columbia getting easy looks inside and making 58% of its shots in the second half. The Lions were able to make the occasional deep shot but, more concerningly for Fordham, got inside consistently to convert easy looks at the rim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fordham\u2019s offense consistently went through sophomore Kaitlin Downey, as she tallied 19 points on 8\u201314 shooting while also hitting three shots from behind the arc. Downey was the only Ram to shoot above 50%, as the rest of the team made just 12 of its 40 shots on the day. Heremaia had success down low and in the post, which is an encouraging sign for the Rams going forward. However, the Fordham offense has struggled to produce over the first two games of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Gaitley \u2014 a defensive-minded coach who logged her thousandth career game on Sunday \u2014 will be far more concerned with her team\u2019s defensive miscues on Sunday. While there were issues the entire game, Fordham\u2019s defense was particularly porous in the second half. The other concern for Fordham is that Columbia outmatched the Rams\u2019 energy in many phases, including the rebound battle, which Fordham lost by 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll find out just how much Fordham has cleaned up when the Rams face yet another critical early-season test at Penn State tonight at 7 p.m. Fordham fell to the Nittany Lions by 17 points in the Bronx last season. The Rams will have to improve their level of play from Sunday\u2019s game to avoid that outcome this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019. Fordham Women\u2019s Basketball played a heart-stopping, emotional and taxing game against Notre Dame last Tuesday. Entering Sunday\u2019s matchup against Columbia, the Rams and head coach Stephanie Gaitley were concerned with a letdown against a tough team, especially coming off the high of taking the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Women\u2019s Basketball Suffers Blowout Loss at Columbia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4224,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions\/4224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}