Women's Basketball in Las Vegas for Two-Game Holiday Classic

Schedule Page
Game Notes
Twitter Updates on @FordhamWBB
 
Bronx, N.Y. – Happy Thanksgiving, Ramily! Fordham (3-2) heads west for this weekend's Las Vegas Holiday Classic to take on Washington (4-0) on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and South Dakota (4-1) on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both times are Eastern.
 
Be The Beast streams this weekend will have no audio, unfortunately, so we encourage fans to watch the stream while listening to the WFUV broadcasts. All links can be found on the schedule page above.
 
Ramses Challenge
Join the Ramses Challenge, a new philanthropic initiative supporting our student-athletes! Pledge a set amount of money for each three-pointer or steal this year, or make a one-time gift to the program. All proceeds are tax-deductible and go directly to Fordham women's basketball. Read more here. So far, the Rams have 43 made threes and a whopping 57 steals already! Thank you for all your continued support!
 
Last Time Out
Fordham rebounded from last week's road losses with one of the most emphatic victories in program history on Sunday, racing past Wagner, 95-48. The Seahawks scored the game's first bucket but Anna DeWolfe's three on the next possession put the Rams ahead for good, ultimately leading, 29-10, after the opening 10 minutes on 60.0% shooting from the field and 59-24 at the half, seven points more than the previous best for points recorded in any half in program history.
 
The Rams were super-efficient on the day, converting 38-of-68 attempts (55.9%), including 14-of-32 from behind the arc (43.8%), with assists on 73.7% of their baskets (28 - most in regulation in program history). Asiah Dingle netted 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting with five rebounds, five assists, and four steals over 24 minutes, while Kaitlyn Downey posted her fourth double-double of the year with 17 points and 13 rebounds, plus five dimes and a pair of blocks. Anna DeWolfe added 17 points, Megan Jonassen tallied 10 points and eight boards, six offensive, and Jada Dapaa and Colleen McQuillen combined for 19 points off the bench, the former hitting 5-of-6 shots, the latter converting all three long-range attempts. The team's 28 assists were second-most all-time and most in regulation, their 38 field goals were tied for second-most, 14 threes the third-most, while the players had just nine fouls, tied for fifth-fewest.
 
Back-to-Back Players of the Week
Asiah Dingle earned the league's first weekly accolade of the year two weeks ago after helping Fordham begin the year  2-1 while averaging 17.3 points on 46.2% shooting, 6.7 rebounds, a whopping 5.0 steals, including a record 10 thefts against Saint Peter's, 3.3 assists, and 0.7 blocks all over just 27.7 minutes per game. This week it was Kaitlyn Downey's turn, her third time winning the award, after averaging an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double last week with 3.5 assists, 1.0 blocks, and 1.0 steals. She also became the 25th Ram to reach 1,000 career points, at Princeton.
 
Series Histories
This will be the first time the Rams have ever played South Dakota. Fordham has played the Huskies before - at the Gulf Coast Showcase at Florida Gulf Coast in 2018 - also on Thanksgiving weekend. The Rams defeated Ball State and the Huskies to set up a date in the final with #10/9 Texas, eventually finishing runner-up. In the Washington game, Downey and Jonassen did appear as freshmen but played a combined 22 minutes with little impact.
 
Triple D - DeWolfe, Dingle, Downey
Shut the front door! The Fordham trio have been gnarly, righteous, dynamite, and, perhaps most importantly, the bomb-dot-com. All three earned Atlantic 10 All-Conference honors and had at least one A-10 Player of the Week award last season. Combined, they made up 66.1% of the team's scoring on a combined 40.2% shooting overall. They are the real deal. Through four games so far, those numbers are similar – 61.2% of the scoring on 47.4% shooting. For context for the uninitiated, this entire blurb is related to Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
 
Three 1,000-Point Scorers
With her tough turnaround second-quarter jumper on Wednesday, Kaitlyn Downey became the 25th Ram to score 1,000 points in program history. She joins Asiah Dingle (1,532 across three schools and five seasons) and Anna DeWolfe (1,377 - seventh-most in school history). Nationally, the Rams are one of 11 schools with three active student-athletes with 1,000 career points, although they are the only mid-major school. Virginia Tech has four.
 
Asiah and Co. Steal the Show
You thought Asiah Dingle's five steals in the season opener was a handful? She doubled that with a program-record 10 against Saint Peter's, notching her ninth and 10th on consecutive possessions in the third quarter. Her previous best was six, which she'd accomplished several times over her career, including once with Fordham. The previous school record was eight, done five times by four student-athletes, but not since Lauren Fleischer in 2001. Her teammates added 11 thefts against the Peacocks to set a new single-game team record, as well, by three, with 21.
 
Are You Experienced?
Fordham's current starting lineup entered this season with a mammoth 488 career games played, unofficially the most in the country via asking national Division I SIDs. Behind them at the beginning of the year were Virginia Tech (431), Oklahoma (427), and UT Arlington (402, but 444 including JUCO). Fordham is now up to 524 games played for its starting five with grad transfer Jada Dapaa adding 92 off the bench.
 
Downey Moving Up
The graduate forward became the 25th Ram to reach 1,000 career points at Princeton with a tough turnaround jumper in the paint. She's up to 1,031 now, tied for 24th with Carol Elser ('85). Against Wagner she moved into the all-time top-10 for career rebounds, now 10th with 709. She entered the year in 10th for career three-pointers made and is now tied with Anna DeWolfe for ninth-most with 173. She will soon join the top-10 for career appearances (currently 118, 10th being 121), while her 112 career starts are tied for fifth-most with Suzanne Maguire ('97).
 
Efficiency
The Rams have started out hot from the field to begin the season, shooting 45.2% as a group through five games and 33.9% from behind the arc. The first mark would rank sixth all-time if the season ended today. Megan Jonassen has been killing it, converting two-thirds of her attempts, including 5-of-7 from long range after going 0-for-1 her first four years. Kaitlyn Downey is shooting 49.1%, Anna DeWolfe 47.1%, and Asiah Dingle 46.3%, as well, with Colleen McQuillen (57.1%) and Jada Dapaa (41.4%) contributing off the bench. From three-point land, if you count only players with at least five makes, you'd get a 40.4% rate between five players (40-of-99). Fordham is also hitting 79.3% of its free throws, as well, with an assist/turnover ratio of 1.17 (90/77).
 
Captains +1
Fifth-years Kaitlyn Downey and Megan Jonassen, plus senior Anna DeWolfe, served as team captains last year. They will do so again this year plus new addition Jada Dapaa, who was voted as the fourth captain by her teammates. It's Downey's fourth year as a captain, most in program history after J.J. Radice's three years, DeWolfe's third, and Jonassen's second.
 
Up Next
Fordham returns home to host Fairfield on Wednesday, November 30, at 5:30 p.m.