February 24th, 2019: UMass at Fordham

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Fordham started off strong and held on tight in a 76-64 win over UMass. Bre Cavanaugh led all scorers with 27 points, with Kaitlyn Downey and Mary Goulding each adding 15. UMass got 44 of their 64 points off the bench, with Destiney Philoxy exploding for 26 and Hailey Leidel lighting it up beyond the arc with 18 (including five threes).

For little sisters, smol seniors, a punch right in the feels, jukebox heroines with stars in their eyes, Murphys' Law, and unexpected connections, join your intrepid and ever-so-briefly caught-up blogger after the jump.

Good afternoon! Your intrepid blogger is steadily working through her backlog (backblog?) of games, and taking the opportunity to catch up a little bit here at Fordham, as the Rams take on the Minutewomen of UMass on Senior Day.

I have to say, I like this new thing of Senior Day being the last weekend home game of the season, not the last game period. It allows more people to see and honor these young ladies for everything they've given to their programs. I do wonder if it feels a little weird when you know for certain that it's not your last home game, but on the other hand, if you're used to making the WNIT, you're already pretty sure you have more home games to come.

I'm looking for familiar faces in the stands, because one of my favorite Pirates, Selena Philoxy, has a little sister, and said sister plays for UMass.

Not gonna lie, as a Red Storm fan first and foremost, I'm always a little confused when other teams are playing "Thunderstruck". I understand that it's a very traditional sports jam, but at the same time, are any of y'all a Storm? I did not think so.

There were many Rebeccas on the pass list today, but either someone mistook me for an Australian or autocarrot struck again. No harm, no foul, and the folks working the table today did everything right.

Bre is no longer blonde, and this is just a tiny bit confusing. Her floof is just a little bit harder to see now.

I'm trying to get a closer look at the Senior Day t-shirts (a Fordham tradition unlike many others) and will report back on the design once I can see it.

Oh my God I love Coach Gaitley's suit.

Oh noes it is time for the Feels. I love that they're starting out with the scout squad. That is so cool. And the team is really, really enthusiastic about the MPPs and the managers. Say, why did it get so dusty in here all of a sudden? Why are these ninja cutting so many onions?! Who keeps punching me in the heart?

Fordham's band is playing "Car Wash" and I am extremely pleasantly confused. Maybe Bec did wander into the building today and this is their way of greeting her.

Really cool timeout ceremony honoring the '78-'79 squad, who basically wrote the Fordham record books (and a good number of these ladies are still quite spry). I love when schools connect with their history.

At halftime, it is 46-28 Fordham on all the three-pointers. No, seriously, I think we have eight. Ralene Kwiatkowski is getting her runs in and we might run out of t-shirts. UMass gets physical when they get frustrated, and they are extremely frustrated right now. Bre Cavanaugh has 14 points and four boards to lead Fordham, while Destiney Philoxy has 11 points off the bench to lead UMass.

I'm starting to wonder if UMass's coach just doesn't believe in starting freshmen, or if Philoxy and Nelson are just having uncharacteristically good games. They've been the only consistent positives for the Minutewomen today.

Postgaming now, with what appears to be an ungodly number of Murphys. There's a pub hidden in the basement of Fordham, and we are taking it over. There appears to be finger food, including the smallest sliders I've ever seen in my life. The projector is set up for the Senior Day presentation- the real one, not the time-shortened one. The team is arriving. Hi, Coach!

That got rather closer than I wanted it to be, to be honest. I would have liked for Alexa Giuliano to have more of an opportunity to play and make a positive impact on the box score, but it is what it is. UMass is a wild team, and when they're on, they're extremely pesky. But their offense was streaky, and when it wasn't working, they were frustrated, leading to physical play and fouls. They've got potential with their freshmen, but I don't know if these hot-headed players and this hot-headed coach are a good combination for each other. They seem like the kind of volatile mix that will either lead to all the conference titles or someone getting punched in the locker room and half the team transferring.

Kendell, why are you wearing a USAB t-shirt? You're a Kiwi! You're from New Zealand! You literally don't even go there!

I do like that Coach Gaitley's letting the seniors each have their say in this and they're all getting to say a few words themselves. Trying to hide behind Lauren Holden is not an effective plan if you're Mary Goulding, though. There's about seven inches of why that doesn't work.

OH MY GOD BABY MARY I AM DED FROM SQUEE no seriously the video tributes from the players' families are fantastic and also I get to hear lots and lots of Kiwi accents, so that's awesome. There are lots of high-pitched squeeing noises coming from the direction of the team at the baby pictures.

*snorfle* Kaitlyn comparing the three seniors to being like her moms, and I'm pretty sure her mother just did a spectacular double-take at that. I don't think everyone's realized that Coach Gaitley is going to make everyone talk.

So that Philoxy kid is pretty good. I'm not just saying that because I like her sister, either. Destiney Philoxy did her best to make sure she didn't lose this game, and she didn't care if her teammates came with her or not. She drives the lane like the A train- fast, no stops. And if she could bring that quick release free throw home for the summer and share it with Selena, that would be great. She's loud and she's communicative on the floor and she has no patience for anyone's nonsense. I can see that chafing with the upperclassmen. Jessica Nelson is extremely physical, and if she becomes more assertive offensively she could be very good for them. Until then she's mostly a goon who needs a better sports bra.

I started to take a profound dislike to Hailey Leidel in the second half when she kept hitting threes on us. It's a polite sort of dislike, leavened with respect and more than a little frustration. She picked up loose change off the glass in some of the scrums. She stepped up in the second half. Paige McCormick saw some time in the first half and put up a jumper. She was not particularly successful, so I'm not surprised she didn't play in the second half.

Anil Soysal is tall, but she's not ready. She's extremely not ready. She was on a short leash whenever she got a foul, and with the physicality that Nelson brought to the floor, her services were far less required. She started the game, but she didn't start the second half, and I'm not sure she even played in the second half. She also doesn't look 6-5 to me, but I recognize that my perceptions of height might be skewed from watching so much basketball. Yes, I'm saying objects in mirror may be taller than they appear. Genesis Rivera got off to a good early start, but picked up three fouls in the first half and was thence consigned to the bench to start the second half. She did not have much of a game.

Near the end of the first half, there was a scrum for a loose ball, one that turned rather into a football play. I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to tackle people in basketball, though I could be wrong. It's been known to happen on occasion. In any case, Bre Hampton-Bey got herself an unsportsmanlike conduct foul, Lauren Holden got herself two free throws, and UMass put themselves in more of a hole than they needed to be in right near the end of the half. Between that and her not-good shooting, I'm not surprised her minutes got cut in the second half. If she played, she didn't play much (our PA guy sort of took the second half off in terms of announcing substitutions, and only the helpful fact that UMass has names on their jerseys reminded me that people were coming in and out of the game). Vashnie Perry started to find her distance stroke in the second half, but it was too late by then. Jessica George had a pretty decent defensive game, all things considered; she was part of the hard-charging double that the Minutewomen so often threw at Bre Cavanaugh. She spent a lot of energy on that end of the floor, and it showed- not necessarily in a good way. UMass threw up more than their fair share of airballs, and I think she had at least one of them, if not more.

UMass has potential. If they don't strangle each other first, and if Soysal can learn how to use her height instead of just trying to reach over people's heads and thus fouling them, they could be something in a couple of years. They could be a homewrecker in the A-10 tourney if their shooters get hot at the same time that their defense turns up. I know you can say that about a lot of teams, and that that is in fact the recipe to be a homewrecker, but they seem to have the pieces to have that potential.

So we got to see all the guards at the end of the game. All of them, pretty much, except for Chloe Chaffin and Edona Thaqi, who I'm pretty sure aren't even supposed to be playing this season (though they have). It was nice. Cat Polisano got some free throw opportunities, which is nice for her. I think that was Lauren Murphy's family starting the chant for her to come into the game, which might have been nice if they hadn't been starting it up before our last senior came into the game. Guys. On Senior Day, maybe wait for all the seniors to come in or go out as appropriate to their role before you start hooting and hollering for your sophomore to come into the game. I don't think a foul was the only way Alexa Giuliano wanted to be in the box score on her Senior Day, but at least she didn't end up a billionaire. Look, collectively, we had five players total five minutes, two free throws, one shot (missed), and one rebound. Even I can't come up with enough words to make that sound good.

Megan Jonassen looked a little more passive than usual in this one, which probably explains why she didn't play that much. It also didn't help her case that UMass didn't have a lot of size and didn't look to go inside that much- most of their run in the second half was fueled by threes. Even Zara Jillings didn't get a lot of time on the floor. This game was, more than even Fordham's ridiculous usual and maybe even more than necessary, decided by the starters. In some ways, that's appropriate, but in other ways, it would have been nice to let Lauren and Mary enjoy their victory from the bench for a little more than eighty seconds, and nice to see Alexa get some real run.

Bre Cavanaugh played like her hair was on fire. I mean, it obviously wasn't, because Bre's hair is very tall and everyone would have immediately noticed if it were on fire. But there was a sense of urgency, a popping energy, an extra spring in her step, that made her even more of a force of nature than usual. Whenever UMass started making it close, she was like "nope" and hit another three or hit another shot in the lane. You really do expect to see the cape streaming behind her when she comes off the court. I kind of got the sense we were getting a little bit of a preview of next year, with Kendell Heremaia running point duties for a good chunk of the game. I'm not sure how I feel about this, although I recognize it's inevitable because Lauren Holden does have to graduate at some point. Kenny runs a little bit of a slower, more methodical game, with less of a tendency to go it alone, but also with less assurance, than Lauren does. I think her offseason development will be very interesting. It took a while for Lauren to get on the board, but we all went nuts when she did. I think she hit the shot in the lane first before hitting the three, but I don't have my notes with me to double-check the order of events. She was mostly in control of herself during the game, though the Senior Day stuff before and after the game really got her.

Mary Goulding was in her glory in this game. There were a lot of loose balls and a lot of scrums, and she was in the thick of most of them. She had a huge second quarter where she was hitting big shots, pulling down boards, and making defensive stops- she had a really nifty steal. She stepped up for us. Kaitlyn Downey got off to a hot start with a soft touch (look, you have gotten through this entire season without that pun, were you expecting that to last?) and never really stopped. We have long since established that I am not a fan of her being so enamored of the three-point shot, but I guess I can be okay with it when it's going down and she's getting good looks when the guards penetrate. That drive and dish game with ball movement was really working for Fordham. I think we might be in good hands next year, as long as we have someone coming in to develop on the bench while Megan and Kaitlyn step up in the rotation.

When we were moving the ball and getting open looks, we did well. We had a little more trouble when the double came flying at Bre like a bat out of hell. If you have Meat Loaf stuck in your head, you're welcome.

I think the refs let the physicality get a little out of control, even after Hampton-Bey got called for the unsportsmanlike conduct foul. But, hey, it worked out okay for us. I could have done without UMass's coach whinging for a travel call down 15 or thereabouts in the final minute. You gotta know when to fold 'em, man.

Whoever released the onion-chopping ninja this month needs to cut it out. I can't deal with this.