No. 23/23 Rutgers Topples Villanova, 62-32
Feb 17 | Women's Basketball
VILLANOVA, Pa. - Junior Essence Carson tallied 16 points, snared 12 rebounds and handed out seven assists to lead No. 23/23 Rutgers to a decisive 62-32 victory over Villanova in collegiate women's basketball action on Saturday evening at the Pavilion.
Sophomore Heather Zurich (Montvale, N.J.) registered a career-best 13 points and added four assists. Junior Matee Ajavon (Newark, N.J.) and sophomore Kia Vaughn (Bronx, N.Y.) added 10 points apiece for the Scarlet Knights (17-7, 10-3 BIG EAST).
With the season-low 32 points scored by Villanova, the Scarlet Knights have held 10 of their last 13 opponents to season-lows in that category after their respective meetings.
Neither team led by more than two points through the first 10 minutes of the game. Villanova pulled ahead 11-10 on a three-pointer by Stacie Witman with 11:15 left in the first stanza. Rutgers answered, rolling off eight straight points to take a lead it would not relinquish.
Carson drove the lane and dished a beautiful pass to Ajavon to commence the spurt. Zurich concluded the run with a triple from the top of the key to give the Scarlet Knights an 18-11 lead.
Villanova cut the deficit to four on the next possession with Witman connecting on her second straight trifecta. RU rolled from that point, scoring nine of the final 10 points of the half to take a commanding 27-15 lead at intermission.
Rutgers opened the advantage to 14 (31-17) to start the second half after a two consecutive jumpers from Zurich and a pair of free throws from Ajavon. A trey by Witman cut the difference to 11 (31-20) but Nova could not recover from its shooting woes.
The Scarlet Knights erupted on a 17-2 run, which included 11 straight points. Vaughn had six and Zurich tallied four during the offensive output which included assists on five of the seven field goals during the burst.
Villanova finished at a 21.8 percent clip, 19.4 percent shooting from long range. The Scarlet Knights connected on 41 percent of their attempts, handing out 19 assists on 25 field goals.
POSTGAME NOTES
Junior Essence Carson carded her fourth double-double of the year, scoring 16 points and adding 12 rebounds. Carson has paced the team in scoring in seven of the last 10 games, compared to five of the first 14 when she was primarily playing the point spot.
Sophomore Heather Zurich likes the city of Philadelphia. The forward topped her previous high of 12 points tallied at Temple on Jan. 24 with her 13 points scored versus the Wildcats.
Junior Matee Ajavon moved to the 24th best scoring total in Rutgers history. The guard, who went over the 1,000 point plateau versus Syracuse and entered the RU scoring chart as the 25th 1,000 point scorer, moved her career point total to 1,018 following tonight's game.
The Rutgers' defense was once again stellar, holding Villanova to a season-low 32 points. The Scarlet Knights have held 10 of its last 13 opponents to their lowest point total in their respective games.
For the second straight game, Rutgers held an opponent to a 25 percent showing or worse from the field. The Scarlet Knights committed just seven turnovers, their second straight game under 10. RU had a season-low five miscues at Syracuse on Wednesday.
Rutgers has held nine opponents to 50 or fewer points this season. The 32 points are the fewest scored by an opponent since Vermont netted just 29 points in a 54-29 Rutgers win on Nov. 25, 2000. Previously this season, Rutgers held South Florida to 36 points.
As a offensive unit, Rutgers had 19 assists on 25 field goals. The six-assist differential matches the most assists on field goals this season for the Scarlet Knights. They had 12 assists on 18 field goals at Seton Hall on Jan. 13.
Three RU players had four or more assists in tonight's game versus Villanova. Carson had a season-best seven handouts and Ajavon and Zurich each had four assists. It marked the third game this season (St. John's and Pitt) three or more players had four or more assists in a single game.
The contest was the 1,025 in head coach C. Vivian Stringer's Hall of Fame career.
