Box Score
SAN FRANCSICO – Despite a furious second-half comeback, the San Francisco women's basketball team was thwarted from posting its biggest come-from-behind win in the
Jennifer Azzi era as Fordham pulled out a 55-48 victory at War Memorial Gym on Wednesday night.
The Dons (2-2) started with a
Mel Khlok layup to earn the early advantage over Fordham (4-0), but USF saw its lead dissipate quickly as a 14-0 Rams run gave the now undefeated visitors from the Atlantic-10 Conference an 11-point lead. Fordham grew its advantage to 14 points after Erin Rooney sunk a pair of free throws with 7:18 to play in the first half. The Dons would narrow the gap to 28-20 by the halftime break after
Alicia Scafidi drained her 3-point attempt with less than a minute to play in the period.
USF started the second half on a mission, scoring 10 of the period's first 12 points to gain a slight 32-30 lead off a
Zhané Dikes jumper with 15:32 to play in the game. The advantage was short-lived, however, as the Rams got the margin back to a nine-point game on a non-traditional three-point play. After a USF foul on the long-range shot, Marah Strickland went 3-for-3 in her trip to the line to set the score at 42-33.
The Dons battled back to a two-possession game with 2:02 remaining in the contest after
Taj Winston's jumper cut the lead to five. But the Rams hit all five of their free throw tries in the final minutes to come away with a 55-48 win and an unblemished record.
Unlike the previous three contests of the season, the Dons shot under 40 percent from the field for the first time of the year. The team's 2-for-15 outing from beyond the arc did the team no favors, despite the fact that they outpaced Fordham 37.3 to 29.0 percent from the field. USF had a trio of double-digit scorers in the loss, with Dikes' 11 points leading the way. Winston and
Whitney Daniels contributed 10 points apiece for the Dons.
Fordham benefitted from 19 points off 15 USF turnovers and grabbed 11 second-chance points against the Dons. Strickland came away as the game's leading scorer in the Rams victory, finishing with 15 points despite shooting 3-for-15 on the night. She swished all eight of her shots from the line and the Rams went 14-for-17 from the stripe while the Dons only managed a 2-of-5 outing from the free throw line.
USF looks to snap a two-game skid against Boise State at War Memorial Gym on Saturday in a 1 p.m. tipoff.
