Fordham Rolls over Women's Basketball, 64-44, in Holiday Classic Final

NEW YORK, N.Y.--As 2013 comes to a close, both Fordham women's basketball and Temi Fagbenle get to keep their streaks alive. The Rams, who dismantled the Harvard women's basketball team on Monday at Rose Hill Gym, won their tenth straight game, 64-44, to tie the longest winning streak in their program's history. Crimson junior forward Fagbenle notched her fifth straight double-double and 14th in her career.

“I think Fordham’s a really good team and they’re very well coached,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. ‘They’ve got inside players and phenomenal shooters. I think they’re a veteran team and very smart. I think they were the better team tonight.”

In the final of Fordham's Holiday Classic, Fagbenle was the leading scorer for the Crimson (9-4), with 11 points, and also topped the rebounds column, grabbing 12 boards. Redshirt senior guard Erin Rooney powered the offense for Fordham (11-2) with a game-high 19 points.

While Rooney led the scoring effort, teammate Abigail Corning did the same on the glass and connecting with teammates. Corning matched Fagbenle’s 12 rebounds and doled out six assists – one more assist than the Crimson had as a team. The Rams outrebounded Harvard, 47-33, through the contest.

Back in her second game after a nearly month-long break, co-captain Christine Clark improved a point from Sunday’s game to notch 10 points. Junior forward Erin McDonnell matched Clark’s mark, her sixth-straight game scoring in double digits.

“I think it’s just getting back into the feel of things,” Clark said. “I’m obviously really happy to be back playing with everyone and happy to be healthy enough to play.”

After struggling to make shots fall during the second half of Sunday’s contest, the Crimson had difficulty hitting an offensive rhythm in the first half. Harvard shot at just 15 percent from the field and hit one of six attempts from behind the arc.

Success for the Crimson came in foul shooting, where Fagbenle, McDonnell and Clark proved reliable at the line and combined to knock down all eight of their free throw attempts. As much as Harvard was successful in drawing the foul, the visitors were also mostly successful in keeping the Rams from the line, allowing Fordham just one opportunity at the charity stripe through the first frame.

But the Crimson still found trouble under the net early, as Fordham out-rebounded Harvard, 24-13. The Rams capitalized on their possessions and took advantage of open lanes at the three-point line. Starting guards Rooney and Hannah Missry each took six looks from long as Fordham drilled seven of 18 tries from behind the perimeter.

Clark said that the Crimson will have to prevent similar defensive breakdowns in conference play.

“[The Rams] were a good shooting team, so you’ve got to give them credit in that regard, but we could have done a better job [defensively],” Clark said. “There are going to be Ivy League teams that have just as good shooters if not better, so it’s good to get this one out of the way.”

A two-point lead grew to double digits as Fordham went on a 16-4 run during the middle section of the first half, and the hosts headed into the locker room with a 16-point lead.

“I thought we had a run in the first period where it went from a game to a 10 point deficit,” Delaney-Smith said. ‘That was all on our mistakes which is, again, unfortunate that we work hard but we don’t work smart. That was too much of a not-smart session.”

While Harvard’s shooting improved to 34 percent during the second stanza, it was too little too late. A layup from senior guard Melissa Mullins and a three from McDonnell drew the Crimson within 13 points at two separate points throughout the half, but the Rams continued to pull away and extend their lead.

The contest is the last for the Crimson before it opens its Ivy League season on Jan. 11 at Dartmouth.

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordelia.mendez@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonCordelia