Rutgers Advances to BIG EAST Championship Game
Mar 05 | Women's Basketball
HARTFORD, Conn. - Sophomore Kia Vaughn (Bronx, N.Y.) tallied 22 points and 11 rebounds and junior Matee Ajavon (Newark, N.J.) scored 20 to vault No. 19/21 Rutgers to a 63-55 victory over No. 21/19 Marquette on Monday evening in the semifinal round of the BIG EAST Championship.
The Scarlet Knights (21-8) advance to the conference finals for the fifth time, having never won the top honor. RU, seeded second in the tourney, faces top-seed Connecticut in the title game. No. 2/3 UConn moved to the final round with a 76-50 win over No. 23/21 Louisville in the first semifinal at the Hartford Civic Center.
Scarlet Knights freshman Epiphanny Prince (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had 10 points. Marquette was paced by Krystal Ellis' 20 points, 14 of which came in the first half.
"It was a long hard fought game and we are happy to be here and excited about an opportunity to play in the championship," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said in the post-game press conference. "It's great for the players sitting beside me (Essence Carson, Kia Vaughn and Matee Ajavon) with their leadership. They're leaders, that's what they were tonight they carried us and we haven't been to the championship in a long time."
Trailing 33-31 at the half, Rutgers scored the first six points of the second to take a 37-33 lead. Prince scored four of the six over the span, closing the run with a pair from the free throw line. MU responded with two-straight field goals, the latter by Efueko Osagie-Landry, to tie the contest at 37-37 with 15:11 left in the game. That would be as close as Marquette would get.
Rutgers exploded for the game's next 11 points, nine of those scored by Ajavon. The junior point guard closed the run with two from the stripe to push the Scarlet Knights to a double-digit advantage (48-37) with 12:26 left to play.
The Golden Eagles got within four points, 59-55 with two minutes to play but could not close the gap. Carson answered with a baseline jumper on the next possession to send Rutgers to its first title showing since 2005.
Ellis scored 11 of the Golden Eagles first 15 points to push the visitors to a 15-7 lead with 14:52 remaining in the first period. MU led by eight twice more in the half, lastly 22-14 on a three-pointer by Ellis.
Vaughn was Rutgers' offensive go-to, scoring 12 of the Scarlet Knights' first 16 points. Vaughn commenced an 11-2 spurt for the Scarlet Knights with a lay-up with 11:13 on the clock. A triple from Brittany Ray - her team-leading 37th of the year - gave Rutgers its first lead since the start of the game, 25-24 with 8:49 remaining in the first.
Rutgers' trademark '55' press created 17 MU turnovers.
"Right now it's all about heart," Carson noted after the game. "If you want the game, you have to give it your all, dig down inside no matter even if you didn't know how to play it (the 55 press). You are going to find a way to make it work if we want to pull out the victory. What is really boils down to is how much we want this game tomorrow."
UConn and Rutgers are meeting in the title contest for the third time in BIG EAST history.
POSTGAME NOTES
WITH THE WIN '?
The Scarlet Knights move to 21-8 on the season and will face No. 1 Connecticut in the championship final on March 6. The appearance in the BIG EAST Championship final will be the fifth-ever for Rutgers, as it seeks its first BIG EAST conference tournament title. Rutgers also moves to 17-11 all-time in the BIG EAST tournament. In semifinal match-ups, the Scarlet Knights are 5-3 all-time.
The 63-55 victory over Marquette mirrored the score of the Scarlet Knights' win over DePaul in the quarterfinals on March 4.
RU is 0-4 in BIG EAST title games and, prior to joining its current conference, posted a 4-4 mark in Atlantic 10 Championship match-ups. The Scarlet Knights had a 24-9 all-time record in the Atlantic-10 conference and have an all-time conference tournament record of 41-20.
The 21-win season is the 20th in program history and is the fifth-straight 21-plus campaign for Rutgers.
RU has won 16 of its last 19 games. In their last 13 games, the Scarlet Knights have posted 11 wins.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Sophomore center Kia Vaughn scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds, posting her 13th career double-double, her 10th of the season.
Vaughn had 14 points in the first half, tying the highest 20-minute point total for a Scarlet Knight this season. (Freshman Epiphanny Prince scored 14 in the opening half against Cincinnati, 2-3-07 and junior Essence Carson tallied 14 points in the opening half against Georgia, 11-12-06). The double-figure outing for Vaughn is the 26th of her career and her 20th this season.
TWO 20-POINT PERFORMANCES
Junior Matee Ajavon scored 20 points, the second-straight double-figure outing for the Newark, N.J. native, and the 13th double-digit outing of the year. In the last seven games, Ajavon has posted double-figures six times, including three 20-plus point performances.
Sophomore Kia Vaugh's 22-point performance is her third 20-plus outing of the year.
The last time Rutgers had two players score 20 points (in regulation) was against Florida on Nov. 18, 2006 when freshmen Epiphanny Prince and Brittany Ray scored 29 and 20 points, respectively. (The 29 points a career-high for Prince). In the Scarlet Knights' triple overtime win over Ole Miss, Ray and Prince hit the 20-point mark with Ray posting a career-best 23 points and Prince scored 20.
TOP PERFORMANCES AT THE LINE
Kia Vaughn went 8-of-9 from the FT line, the most FT's made in her career, while Matee Ajavon was 7-of-10 from the charity stripe, a season-high for the junior.
MAKING MINUTES COUNT
Freshman Myia McCurdy played 25 minutes and added two points, two boards and a steal. Classmate Rashidat Junaid played four minutes against Marquette, tallying three blocks and pulling down one minute.
CONSISTENCY FROM THE FIELD
Rutgers shot 41.7 percent from the field (20-of-48), the 14th time this season the Scarlet Knights
have shot above 40 percent from the floor.
MOVIN' ON UP
With four blocks in the game, Kia Vaughn moved into sole possession of second place on the single-season chart with 80 blocked shots this season, surpassing Sue Wicks' 77 swats set during the 1987-88 campaign. Wicks holds the single-season record with 97 blocks, set during the 1986-87 campaign.
The four blocks also pulled Vaughn even with Tammy Sutton-Brown's career mark of 148, set from 1997-2001.
Junior Matee Ajavon, who scored her 1,000th career point at Syracuse (Feb. 14), moved to 19th on the career scoring list with 20 points in tonight's game, passing Denise Kenney (1976-79; 1,103) and Jennie Hall (1979-83; 1,104) on the all-time list and moving up three spots during the first two rounds of the BIG EAST tournament. Ajavon now has 1,117 points in her career.
