Fordham takes Notre Dame to wire in close loss to Irish

(Photo by Karen Floriani/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

NEW YORK — Many coaches do not maintain moral victories within their respective lexicons, and who can blame them? Coaches by nature are very competitive and want to instill that quality into their players. Moral victories will not suffice.

Fordham’s Stephanie Gaitley strayed from using that term Tuesday night, when her Rams gave 16th-ranked Notre Dame all it could handle before falling five points short in a narrow 60-55 loss inside a sold-out Rose Hill Gymnasium.

“I am very proud of our kids,” Gaitley said in her office following the contest. “We did not take care of the ball that well, but our defense was good, the kids really gave a great effort.”

Not taking care of the ball spelled turnovers, of which Fordham registered 16, ten of which came in a first half where the Rams shot a meager 29 percent from the floor, and just 3-of-18 from the three-point line.

While Fordham — with two freshmen in its backcourt — struggled, Notre Dame altered its approach by going inside to combat the Rams’ zone defense.

“We went with a small lineup to use our quickness,” Gaitley said on a night where Fordham’s consistency reappeared in the second half as junior guard Kendell Heremaia was one of the more stable hands for the Rams. “Notre Dame’s size did bother us, however. If we just played better in that second period (Fordham scored only ten points in this stanza), things could have been different.

Gaitley did mention her team won the second half, outscoring Notre Dame by a 31-24 margin after the intermission. While the cynics can point to the Fighting Irish replacing its entire starting lineup — Kaitlyn Gilbert, Muffet McGraw’s top returning scorer, averaged just 3.6 points per game last year — with a quintet making its first individual collegiate starts, Fordham’s veteran mentor still saw positives in a game scheduled back in the spring.

“One of my goals each year is to get to the NCAA Tournament,” she said. “You can win the conference tournament or get an at-large bid. A game like this gives us a test to get ready for conference play and helps our own strength of schedule if we look for an at-large bid. We always want to schedule a tough non-conference schedule.”