Box Score
BRONX, NY – The youthful San Francisco Dons women's basketball team opened the 2013-14 campaign with an 80-66 defeat at Fordham's Rose Hill Gym Friday night.
USF was led by a 19-point outing from
Taj Winston. The junior from Long Beach, Calif., nearly matched her career-high in scoring and posted a new benchmark after five steals in the contest. Making her first collegiate start for the Dons, freshman
Rachel Howard finished with 16 points on an effective 7-of-12 shooting. Also seeing the floor for the first time in the Green and Gold was
Paige Spietz, a redshirt junior from Brimfield, Ill. She, along with
Taylor Proctor, both posted a team-high seven rebounds for USF.
"Our guards definitely scored which is a positive thing, and I think it's great that Rachel had a big first game as a freshman," head coach
Jennifer Azzi remarked. "It's tough for a physical team like ours with the new rule changes, it just flat out is. That's not an excuse on my part but you can't touch anybody. We've got to adjust though."
The Rams received the bulk of their scoring from four individuals, with Abigail Corning's 22 points and six assists pacing the team. Erin Rooney, a Preseason All-Conference selection, finished with 19 points after sinking 4-of-5 from 3-point range and adding 10 rebounds for the double-double outing. Â It was the first game of the season for both squads.
The Dons, who kept it close for a good portion of the first half, could not overcome the 13-of-29 3-point shooting of the Rams, coupled by a 44-32 difference on the boards in favor of the home team. Fordham jumped to a 6-2 lead but USF quickly responded with jumpers from Spietz and
Zhané Dikes to knot the game at six apiece. The Dons took the 14-7 lead as Proctor hit consecutive 3-point attempts and Winston followed it up with a jumper to score.
Fordham hit its first 3-pointer of the game with 13:34 to play in the first period as Rooney connected from distance. The Dons responded to grow the lead to 20-12 after Howard's first career bucket. The Rams were unfazed by the early deficit, going on a 9-0 run to retake the lead, capped by Samantha Clark's and-1 opportunity with a successful trip to the free throw line.
Three-quarters through the first half of play, Hannah Missry's back-to-back triples gave Fordham a seven-point advantage, and by halftime USF found itself down by a mark of 47-38. Happy to fire the three, Fordham finished the first half 6-of-13 from long range, with Missry's four triples netting her 14 points by the break, and for the game.
The second half was more of the same for the Fordham offense, who fired another 16 long range attempts in the period, connecting on seven. With the score at 67-49 in favor of the Rams, the Dons capitalized on their speed and agility as USF got three consecutive steals and fast-break layups from Howard, Dikes and Winston to put the score at 67-55. But long-range shots from Corning and Rooney negated the Dons' run.
"Defensively – we're a good defensive team if you can actually play defense," Azzi said. "When we're able to do that, then we can be a great team. But if no one is allowed any physicality whatsoever it changes the game, and it's disappointing. But it is what it is and we've got to adjust to it."
Both the Dons and Rams shot over 40 percent from the field in the game and each team finished the contest with 62 attempts. But with 39 of its 80 points coming from long range, Fordham was able to pull away on the scoreboard. The Rams were slated to finish third in the Atlantic-10 after an historic 2012-13 season that saw Fordham advance to the third round of the WNIT and finish with a 26-9 overall record.
"We have adjust quickly, as Columbia does some similar things," Azzi remarked on the quick turnaround. "They're a new team, new staff, a lot of new young players as well. Adjusting with a young team is more challenging than with a seasoned team, but we're going to get there. We're going to improve from this game and keep moving forward."
USF continues its East Coast road trip Sunday, facing Columbia at 11 a.m. PT.
