Women’s Basketball Loses to La Salle and Temple

It was another tough week for the Fordham women's basketball team as the Rams went winless in two games against La Salle and Temple on Wednesday Feb. 1 and Saturday Feb. 4, respectively.

Fordham hosted the Explorers of La Salle on School Day, when over a thousand children poured into Rose Hill Gym to take in the noon matinee. The kids were treated to quite a game, but unfortunately, the contest ended in a Rams defeat, 56-55.

In a game that went back and forth the entire time, and even saw the Rams erase a 10-point deficit with less than four minutes left, Fordham was on the wrong end of a late free throw that would win the game. In an attempt to take a charge, freshman forward Emily Tapio was called for a block with just seconds remaining, leading to a free throw by La Salle guard Michea Bryant that would prove to be the difference in the game.

Coach Stephanie Gaitley remains positive.

 "The kids have been controlling the two things we've asked them to control: effort and attitude. The effort has been great, the attitude has been great," Gaitley said. "We're falling short against teams that are quite frankly, more talented than us. When we shoot well, we can stay in the game because we're doing a great job of playing defense, but unfortunately, we're young and we're limited in depth, so our margin of error is very small.

That being said, the Rams want to control their destiny heading into to the Atlantic 10 conference tournament. As nice as playing well in conference is, there is a bigger picture to be seen.

"We want to make sure [the team] is not satisfied. You shouldn't be satisfied because you're close, you want to be hungry," Gaitley said. "You want to get over that hump. That's part of the challenge in changing the culture of a team that hasn't won."

The loss on Saturday to Temple in Philadelphia was not as pretty a defeat as the one to La Salle. The Owls beat the Rams 69-51 in a tough road loss for Fordham.

Fordham managed to hang with Temple early until a 13-4 run put the Rams down nine at half, followed by another 8-0 run by Temple to begin the second half, pushing the lead up to 17. The only bright spots were two solid performances from junior guard Arielle Collins and sophomore guard Abigail Corning, who each had 15 points against Temple.

The loss to Temple continued a theme of struggling against experienced teams that has plagued Fordham this year.

"We were going against a team that starts four seniors and a junior, has two potential all-conference players and that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. And we are a limited team that plays hard," Gaitley remarked.

Fordham, which is now 11-13 (2-7 in conference play), will play its next game against Xavier on Saturday Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. in the Rose Hill Gym, following the men's game earlier that afternoon.