Women's Basketball Falls Just Short of Fordham in Home Opener

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Despite closing a 13-point gap to four with under two minutes to play, the Bison ultimately fell 78-71 in their home opener on Wednesday night. In the loss, Zemitis tied her career-high in three-pointers made with five. With the loss, Bucknell falls to 0-3 overall and 0-1 at home and Fordham moves to 4-0 on the season.

Both teams hit five three pointers in the first quarter, creating quite the offensive battle, but the Bison edged out the Rams 29-23 thanks to a 78.6 shooting percentage compared to Fordham's 61.5 percent. The Rams kept up its three-point prowess in the second shooting 3-for-4 which helped them out-score the Bison 18-9 and take a 41-38 lead. The Bison battled back in the fourth bringing the game within four points, but it wouldn't be enough as Fordham would take the win.

Alongside Zemitis matching her three-point record, she also came up just one-point shy of her career-high with 20, leading the team. Tessa Liggio and Elana Weisman also found double-digit scoring with Weisman notching 13 and Liggio recording a new career-high with 11. Overall Bucknell shot 48.3 percent from the field compared to Fordham's 52.1 percent. Each team knocked down 10 three-pointers during the game.

Fordham out-rebounded Bucknell 32-23. Weisman led the Bison in rebounds with six and Mariah Hardy followed closely with five.

Bucknell ended the game with 17 assists on 28-of-58 shooting. Weisman led the team in assists and matched her career-high with six. Fordham beat Bucknell in the paint and out-paced it in three-point shooting to secure the win.

Despite the loss, the Bison won the turnover battle for the third game in a row, giving up 17 turnovers to Fordham's 19. They also scored more points off of those turnovers with 21 to the Rams 17.

Bucknell won the tip and Reese Zemitis hit a jumper to open the game before back and forth play ensued. Tessa Liggio, Mariah Hardy and Zemitis found points to give Bucknell an 8-6 lead before Fordham found back-to-back three's to take a 12-8 lead. After some back and forth including a Zemitis jumper, the Rams took a 15-11 lead into the media timeout with 4:09 left in the quarter. Out of the break, the competition of threes intensified with four different Bison finding the basket on deep shots. Fordham's Edwards answered the call with two three's of her own, but the Bison came out on top in the first 29-23 after a big offensive foul was called on the Rams and Dadzie capitalized with a last second layup.

Fordham opened up the second quarter with Edwards getting her fourth three of the game. Weisman answered with a jumper, but Fordham then found two more three pointers, one from Edwards who stood at a perfect 5-for-5 at the media timeout with five minutes to go in the half. The second of those threes earned Fordham a 32-31 lead. Bucknell finally broke the Rams scoring streak with a Weisman layup that tied the game up at 33. Fordham then found four unanswered points, but Weisman broke that up with a three before each team found a jumpshot and Fordham took a three point lead into the half.

Coming out of halftime, Fordham put up three points on a jumper and free-throw, but Bucknell answered with back-to-back jumpers from Weisman to cut the gap to four. Fordham was able to hold on to its four-point lead at the media timeout with 4:58 left in the third as the teams traded points. Out of the media, Fordham went on a six-point run before Kreuzer drained a three to cut Bucknell's deficit to eight with about three minutes left in the third. The Rams then out-shot the Bison 7-4 to take a 64-53 lead to the final ten minutes of play.

Fordham opened the fourth with a jumper, but Bucknell answered with an eight-point run that saw threes from Zemitis and Liggio and allowed the Bison to close the gap to five with 7:55 to go. Fordham then out-scored Bucknell 6-2 in the following three minutes to take a nine-point lead into the media timeout with 4:48 left in regulation. Zemitis came out of the break with a three to close the gap to four with under three minutes left to go and after Fordham answered, Hardy cut the gap back to four with free-throws. On the inbound, the Rams turned over the ball and the Bison attempted three three-pointers to close the gap to one with no avail. Fordham then held onto its lead to win 78-71 in Lewisburg.

Bucknell women's basketball will next travel to Maryland to take on Mount St. Mary's at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14.