No. 22/23 Rutgers Falls at No. 5/4 Connecticut
Feb 06 | Women's Basketball
STORRS, Conn. - The No. 22/23 Rutgers women's basketball team dropped a 60-50 decision to No. 5/5 Connecticut on Tuesday night at Gampel Pavilion.
The Scarlet Knights (14-7, 7-3 BIG EAST) were led by sophomore center Kia Vaughn (Bronx, N.Y.) with 16 points and eight rebounds. Freshman guard Epiphanny Prince (Brooklyn, N.Y.) tallied 11 points, all in the second half.
Junior forward Essence Carson (Paterson, N.J.) grabbed a team-best nine rebounds and chipped in eight points, ending her streak of double-digit scoring performances at 10 games.
Junior Charde Houston paced the Huskies (21-2, 11-0 BE) with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Tina Charles and sophomore Kalena Greene each had 15 points and 10 boards.
Rutgers took an early 3-2 lead following its first basket, a 3-pointer, from Carson. The lead would be short-lived as Connecticut used an 8-0, four-minute run to pull ahead by seven (10-3).
The Scarlet Knights closed the lead to five (11-6), but the Huskies built the advantage using a
14-4 run to take a 26-10 lead with 4:47 showing in the first. Rutgers used a 13-4 run over the remaining 4:27 in the half to cut the lead to 30-23 at the break. During the spurt, the Scarlet Knights went 3-of-4 beyond the three-point line, including two triples from freshman Brittany Ray (Bronx, N.Y.).
To open the second stanza, the Huskies tallied 10 unanswered points, six coming from Greene, to push ahead 40-23 with 15:22 remaining.
A driving lay-up from Prince at the 10:53 mark cut the lead to 10 (41-31). UConn extended the lead to 14 on an offensive put-back by Houston with 5:50 to play. Back-to-back field goals from Vaughn and a triple from Prince pulled the Scarlet Knights to 53-44 with 2:53 remaining. That would be as close as Rutgers would come.
Rutgers hosts West Virginia on Sunday, Feb. 11 at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. Tip-off time is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
