No. 3/2 Rutgers Trounces Princeton, 83-35
Nov 18 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Three players scored in double figures as No. 3/2 Rutgers cruised to an 83-35 win over intra-state rival Princeton on Tuesday evening at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. With the win, the Scarlet Knights picked up their 16th straight win at home dating back to Nov. 16, 2007. The streak is the ninth-longest in Division I.
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Epiphanny Prince
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The Scarlet Knights (2-0) raced out to a 9-0 lead, driven by four points from junior Myia McCurdy (Cincinnati, Ohio). After Princeton pulled to within seven (11-4), Rutgers went into overdrive by scoring 19 unanswered points. Rushdan capped the colossal spurt with an old-fashioned three-point play to build a 30-4 lead with 8:19 to go in the first half. Rushdan had five points during the run while four other players contributed.
All 12 players saw action in the first stanza with nine players accounting for at least three points by the halftime horn when Rutgers went ahead, 45-18. The Scarlet Knights shot 54.8 percent in the half, scoring the most points since the 48 posted in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament versus Robert Morris on March 22. The Tigers shot 19.7 percent from the field in the half.
Princeton could only get as close 22 points in the early moments of the second half before the home team answered with a 6-0 run to put the game further out of reach. RU closed by shooting 55.2 percent from the field and out-rebounding the Tigers, 47-28. Rutgers, who played with only eight healthy players much of last season, saw its bench of seven-strong score 28 points.
The win was the 12th straight over its state rival and was the largest margin of victory for a RU team since defeating Rider, 90-42, to open the 2004 -05 season (Nov. 20). The victory is the second straight wire-to-wire win following RU’s season-opening 86-59 triumph over Saint Joseph’s on Friday.
The Knights are next in action this weekend in California for a pair of games versus top-10 opponents. RU takes on No. 7 California on Friday, Nov. 20 and No. 8 Stanford on Sunday, Nov. 23.
POST GAME NOTES
WITH THE WIN
With the 83-35 win over Princeton, Rutgers improves to 13-1 all-time against the Tigers, including victories in 12 straight contests, dating back to the very first women’s basketball game for RU in 1974. The Knights are now 8-0 at home against Princeton all-time, and have beaten them in each of the past five seasons. The Scarlet Knights have not lost to Princeton since dropping a 58-38 decision on February 26, 1976.
SWEET SIXTEEN
Rutgers pushed its home win streak to 16 games after defeating Princeton on Tuesday night. The Scarlet Knights won their season opener against Saint Joseph’s last Friday and their remaining 14 home games last season after dropping the season opener against Stanford in November. RU’s 16 straight home victories is tied for the ninth longest streak in the nation with Stanford.
CHASING THEIR TAILS
Rutgers opened the game with a 30-4 run over Princeton on Tuesday night. The Scarlet Knights started the game with a 9-0 streak,and had a 19-0 scoring spurt from the 15:27 to the 7:43 mark in the first half. The four points by the Tigers in the first 12 minutes of the game were bested by Epiphany Prince and Khadijah Rushdan, who had seven and five points during the stretch, respectively. Princeton’s four points were also equaled by Kia Vaughn, Heather Zurich, Myia McCurdy, and Brittany Ray.
WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR
The 19 straight points are the most consecutive points since the Scarlet Knights reeled off 20 straight points in last season’s 67-42 win at George Washington on November 18, one year to the day of Rutgers’ victory over Princeton this season.
LET’S GET IT STARTED
With a jumper by Epiphany Prince at the 15:27 mark in the first half, all five Rutgers starters converted on at least one field goal and got out to a 13-4 advantage over Princeton.
BETTER THAN AVERAGE (IN THE FIRST HALF)
Rutgers has won by an average of 24 points in its 12 all-time wins against Princeton. With a 45-18 advantage at halftime, the Scarlet Knights led by 27 and were already three points better than their average margin of victory against the Tigers.
UP AT THE HALF
Rutgers led by 27 points at the half over the Tigers, the largest halftime lead over an opponent since a 48-21 lead (27) over Robert Morris on March 22, 2008 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
RUSHDAN HOUR
In just her second game back from a season-ending ACL injury last December 30, Khadijah Rushdan registered her first career double-digit scoring effort. Rushdan scored 11 points on 3-4 shooting and added three rebounds in the win over Princeton.
STEALING THE SHOW
One game after Epiphanny Prince established a new career high with seven steals in an 86-59 win over Saint Joseph’s on November 14, junior Brittany Ray set a career high with four steals against Princeton. Ray’s previous high was three steals in a 58-50 win over St. John’s on January 5, 2008.
THE POWER OF 10
In Rutgers’ win over Princeton, Epiphanny Prince (15), Khadijah Rushdan (11), and Kia Vaughn (10) all scored in double digits, marking the first time since last year’s BIG EAST Tournament against Louisville that the Scarlet Knights had at least three players score in double figures. Rutgers also had 10 players score in the win over the Tigers, including seven players with at least eight points in the contest.
DE-FENSE
Rutgers has finished three of the last four seasons ranked second in the nation in scoring defense, and this season looks to be no different. The 35 points allowed by the Scarlet Knights to Princeton are the fewest since they gave up 34 points to Temple on December 30, 2007. The Tigers also shot just 20.8% (10-48) in the game, the lowest percentage for an RU opponent since Robert Morris shot 20.0% (12-60) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 22 of last season.
MARKING THEIR TERRITORY
Rutgers won by a margin of 48 points in their 83-35 victory over Princeton on November 18, the largest margin of victory for the Scarlet Knights since they defeated Rider, 90-42 on Nov. 20, 2004. It was the second largest point differential in the 14 all-time matchups between Rutgers and Princeton, with the largest being a 73-point difference in a 116-43 Rutgers win on November 27, 1979 in Princeton.
HANDLING WITH CARE
Rutgers had just nine turnovers in their 83-35 win over Princeton on November 18. It was the first time since the NCAA Tournament (first round) against Robert Morris on March 22, 2008 when the Scarlet Knights had less than 10 team turnovers. Rutgers had four games last season with just nine turnovers.
HEATHER DISHING IT OUT
Senior Heather Zurich matched a career-high with five assists in tonight’s victory. Zurich has started off her season playing very well, shooting 5-of-8 from the field, distributing seven assists and committing no turnovers.
PLAYER QUOTES
Epiphanny Prince:
Do you hold on to a win like this much or are you already thinking about what is next to come:
“We knew that Princeton was a good team, they made us work hard on the defensive side (of the ball). We are looking forward to this weekend though. We feel like it will tell us the identity of our team and what we need to work on as a team.”
How do you feel so far about working in so many new players and why do you think these two games can tell you more:
“I think so far we’ve done a good job. We are not were we usually are defensively but that is because we have a lot of freshmen and there are a lot of concepts that Coach Stringer is teaching us. I think that offensively we are beginning to be more of a threat. In our first couple of games, we’ve scored in the 80’s and I don’t think we’ve done that before. They are both really good teams (Cal and Stanford) and they have a majority of their team coming back (from last season), so we know that if we can come out with two wins this weekend that we can put ourselves onto the national stage.”
How does this team compare to the team that you played with freshman year, especially defensively:
“The freshmen here now are a little different. They think differently then we did. We couldn’t get the concepts so we would get frustrated with it. We would just try to out-score everyone. The freshmen this year, if they don’t know it, they ask questions and they actually want to get it. I think that is what the difference is to the team being more successful than it was my freshman year.”
Kia Vaughn:
Are you anxious to travel and go up against two top 10 teams this early in the season:
“I am a little bit anxious. I am just trying to get take everything slowly because I know we still have a lot of things to work on as a unit and I myself have things to work on as an individual.”
How do you feel about the new freshmen coming in and how much more will you learn about this team’s identity playing the competition that is coming up this weekend:
“I think Coach Stringer is doing a good job putting them into the line up, based on their minutes. Coach Stringer’s motto is defense rules the house and they are playing defense well. They are talking and everything else. We are trying to break them out of their shells because they are coming from teams where they really don’t talk. So we, as upperclassmen, are trying to help them out.”
“These two games are big ones. I think these are two games that coach is stressing. Those two games will define who we are and what we are capable of doing. It will let us know that we are here and that we have more to work on and exactly what we need to work on.”
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