By Jack McLoone

It was a raucous morning in the Rose Hill Gym on Wednesday when Fordham Women’s Basketball welcomed in the Richmond Spiders. The Rams were hosting their annual “Field Trip Day,” when local students pack into the oldest active arena in Division I sports to support the maroon and white. Behind the energy of the over 2,500 in attendance, the Rams ran away with it against the Spiders, winning 60-48. It is the Rams’ sixth straight win. They are now 11-5 overall and 2-0 in the Atlantic 10.

“Field trip day is one of those things that you love it’s your home game and have the extra energy but as you saw today it took a quarter to settle the team down,” said head coach Stephanie Gaitley via email. “All in all a great thing!”

Not unlike their last matchup against George Washington, the Rams came out in the first quarter on fire from three. Unlike that game, the Rams didn’t hit any other type of field goal in the first quarter.

The Rams shot 5-11 from three in the opening quarter. When senior guard Lauren Holden hit her second of the quarter to put Fordham up 9-8 with 5:52 to go, the Rams stayed in front the rest of the way.

The only starter—from the regular group of Holden, redshirt sophomore Bre Cavanaugh, sophomore Kendell Heremaia, freshman Kaitlyn Downey and senior Mary Goulding—not to make a three in the opening quarter was Goulding. She made up for it, however, finishing with 14 points.

The Rams only grew their lead in the second quarter, though this time with just one three from Cavanaugh. At the end of the half, the Rams had pushed their lead out to nine, 34-25. That lead was more than doubled by the end of the third quarter to 23, 54-31, helped along by two more threes from Holden.

After playing tough defense through the first three quarters, the Rams settled back and got maybe a little too complacent, though head coach Stephanie Gaitley did start to pull from her bench more with the lead so large. The Spiders outscored the Rams 17-6 in the quarter, but it did not make a difference.

It was an impressive team effort by the Rams, both offensively and defensively. 17 of the Rams’ 23 field goals were assisted, a ridiculously high rate. Additionally, they out-rebounded the Spiders 40-24. They also held Richmond to just 34 percent shooting over the first three quarters and forced 12 turnovers.

Cavanaugh picked up a double-double that was almost a triple-double, scoring a game-high 20 points, as well as pulling down 12 rebounds and dishing seven assists.

Over the six-game winning streak, Holden has continued to bounce back from her slow start, shooting 50 percent from the field, including over 48 percent from three. She has shot 5-9 from the floor in three straight games.

“Lauren and I met a few times and discussed just focusing on why she has control over defense and leadership,” said Gaitley. “She has also done a lot of extra shooting which has really helped her!”

Despite the sustained success, Gaitley isn’t concerned with her team getting complacent.

“I think it is easy to motivate a team when they are winning because competitors are motivated to win,” she said. “We also started putting the number of days left in the season on a big whiteboard at practice so they see how little of the season is left. This team has great chemistry and enjoys playing together and is motivated to keep playing!

The Rams will next be in action on the road against the Saint Louis Billikens on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 4 p.m. Saint Louis is 6-9 overall and 1-1 in the A-10. Its last game was a 62-49 win over St. Joseph’s.