No. 14/14 Rutgers Cruises Past Lafayette, 61-29
Dec 19 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers won its fifth straight game in convincing fashion, claiming a 61-29 victory over Lafayette on Friday evening at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
Junior Epiphanny Prince (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led the Scarlet Knights with 23 points, her eighth double-figure performance of the year. The third-year player added a team-best five steals. With her 10-for-19 shooting effort, Prince matched the total number of made field goals by the entire Lafayette team (10-of-39).
| Senior Kia Vaughn moved into fifth place in the RU record book for career rebounds after pulling down nine rebounds against Lafayette. (Tom Ciszek/NJSportsPhoto) |
Senior center Kia Vaughn (Bronx, N.Y.) scored 13 points and posted a team-high nine boards and three blocks. Vaughn either scored or had a hand in each of the first four RU field goals of the game, finishing the half with 10 points.
Every player on the RU roster recorded at least one rebound in the game as the squad had a 45-24 rebounding edge. Redshirt freshman Khadijah Rushdan (Wilmington, Del.) collected a career-best seven boards.
The Scarlet Knights (7-2), which won their 19th consecutive contest at home, held an opponent under 30 points for the first time since 2000. That RU squad, featuring a senior guard named Tasha Pointer, beat Vermont by a 54-29 score. Pointer, the all-time leader in steals and assists, is in her second-year as an assistant coach for head coach C. Vivian Stringer.
Leading by one at the 14:27 mark, the Scarlet Knights went on a 13-1 run to take a 20-7 lead. Prince tallied seven of the 20 for RU, including capping the drive with a three-pointer from the right wing with 7:37 left in the half.
The Leopards used a 7-0 run in the last two and a half minutes of the half to close to 26-17 at the break. It would be as close as the visitors would come.
RU opened the second half with an 18-5 surge to pull ahead, 44-22 with 11:17 remaining. Senior Heather Zurich (Montvale, N.J.) contributed five points, all consecutively, during the Scarlet Knights' drive. Junior Brittany Ray (Bronx, N.Y.) and Prince had four points each in the same span as the junior tandem closed the run with a host of jumpers. The RU defense held Lafayette to just one field goal over the nine-minute period as the Scarlet Knights cruised from there en route to the 32-point victory.
RU is off for the holiday break, returning to game action on Monday, Dec. 29. The Scarlet Knights host George Washington at 7:30 p.m. at the RAC.
POSTGAME NOTES
WITH THE WIN
With the 61-29 win over Lafayette, Rutgers improves to 8-1 all-time against Patriot League opponents, including victories in two straight contests. The Scarlet Knights also extended their home winning streak to 19 straight games, tying them with Stanford for the seventh longest streak in the nation. The 19 consecutive games are the longest home win streak since RU won 19 in a row at home from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
MATCH GAME
With her 23 points on 10-for-19 shooting, Epiphanny Prince matched the total number of field goals made by the entire Lafayette team. The Leopards shot 10-for-39 in the contest, including 4-for-20 in the second half. Prince went 6-for-11 in the second half to help her outscore Lafayette 14-12 in the last period.
DEFENSIVE PROWESS
Rutgers allowed only 29 points in tonight's contest, including just 12 in the second half. The 29 points were the fewest points allowed to an opponent since giving up 29 on Nov. 25, 2000 in a 54-29 win over Vermont. It is the fourth time this year and second consecutive game in which RU has allowed 39 or fewer points. And the 32-point margin of victory is the largest since defeating Princeton 83-35 back on November 18 of this year.
DECEMBER MAGIC
This is the first time Rutgers has started the month of December with a 4-0 record since the 2005-06 season. The Scarlet Knights opened December with a 5-0 record during that season.
DON'T LOOK BACK
For the second consecutive game and fourth time this season, Rutgers did not trail in a game when they defeated Lafayette 61-29 on December 19. The Knights opened the year without trailing for two straight contests in victories over Saint Joseph's and Princeton, and also were never behind in a 59-38 win over Army on December 14.
CRASHING THE BOARDS
The Scarlet Knights improved to a perfect 7-0 when they out-rebound their opponents. RU won the battle of the boards 45-24 against Lafayette and now has a plus-10 differential in rebounds over opponents in four games this season. The plus-24 differential is the largest of the season and most since +19 (47-28) against Princeton on November 18. In Rutgers' two losses this year, they were out-rebounded by Cal and Stanford by 12 and 10 boards, respectively.
MOVIN' ON UP
Senior Kia Vaughn moved into fifth place in the RU record book for career rebounds after pulling down nine rebounds against Lafayette. Vaughn (901) passed Tanya Hansen (894) on the list, and now sits 43 rebounds shy of Sandy Tupurins (944) for fourth place in Knights history.
MORE ON KIA
In Rutgers' win over Lafayette, Kia Vaughn established season-highs in points (13) and rebounds (9), while also scoring six of RU's first nine points and assisting on a three-pointer by Heather Zurich. The nine rebounds put her one shy of her first double-double of the season and first since the opening round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament against Robert Morris when she posted 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
TEAM BLOCK PARTY
With nine blocks against Lafayette on December 19, the Scarlet Knights surpassed their season-high for blocks in a game. Rutgers opened the season with seven blocks against Saint Joseph's and were led by Kia Vaughn in both contests. Vaughn rejected four shots in the season opener and three against Lafayette.
PIPH LEADS THE WAY…AGAIN
In the Scarlet Knights win over Lafayette, junior Epiphanny Prince notched her fourth 20-point game of the season and 13th of her career with 23 points against the Leopards. Prince also led RU in scoring for the seventh time this season and the 27th time in her career.
TOPPING THE CENTURY MARK
With her assist at the 16:17 mark of the second half, Heather Zurich reached 100 career assists, becoming just the second active Knights player to achieve that mark. Zurich joined Epiphanny Prince, who now has 216 assists, including three against Lafayette.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES
In their 61-29 win over Lafayette on December 19, Rutgers did not pull away until the second half. The Scarlet Knights held a 26-17 lead over the Leopards at intermission, and then used 14-3 run to start the second half to outscore their opponent 35-12 in the half.
'TWAS THE GAME BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Rutgers improved to 9-5 in games before the holiday break with C. Vivian Stringer at the helm. The Scarlet Knights are 4-1 over the past five years in their final game before Christmas and 8-2 in the past 10 seasons.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Kia Vaughn
On how the team played defensively:
"Defensively I think we're getting better. We're starting to understand defensive concepts and how to jump to the ball, just little things that make up the Scarlet Knights typical defense. It's getting better."
On where she sees the team after the first part of year and what she expects during the break:
"Right now on a scale of one to ten, I'd say we're about a 6.5. We have a lot of work to get done. We're going to be doing a lot of little things, whether its jumping to the ball, she's going to teach us, as a whole being if its me or the freshmen; boxing out, pursuing, seeing the ball, just everything, talking, talking about little things, a lot of people are shy and just have to break out of their shells."
Epiphanny Prince
On the second half defensive effort:
"I think we were aggressive with the press. Brookyln (Pope) Kia and Myia (McCurdy), they did a good thing being aggressive on the top of the press and it made it easier for the guards to come and get good traps. When we were doing well on the press, we were actually scoring too."
Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer
On the defensive effort:
"People who came out (of the game), they came out because of defense. When somebody goes in and the other team starts to score real quick, that's unacceptable. The other day Myia McCurdy played 32 minutes and only scored about 3 points, why was she there? Because she played defense. I think that a couple of people are capable, and when they think about it they are capable of playing better defense. So we have to do a couple of things: One, we need the point guards to define themselves, as you saw we were running Brittany (Ray) at the point, that's not her position, but it's okay because she will run the offense. But you see, her points suffered as well. In the last game at Madison Square Garden, Brittany may have gotten 12 points, but Epiphanny got 25. The problem is when Epiphanny ran the point, she would suffer even more, because she is capable of 20-25 points every night. On the other hand, Brittany is probably a 12 point performer, but she wasn't playing her best game today either, to be honest. We need Khadijah (Rushdan) and Nikki (Speed) to do what they do best."
Her thoughts after the first half:
"I think that I was saying to Epiphanny, she could play better because she can. There is no question about that. I thought Brittany wasn't playing well, but I also understand Brittany because she was playing out of position. She wasn't happy because Heather is involved when there are problems on the court, she's involved with it, somehow she forgets to switch or something like that. I am not particularly pleased with those things, but in light of what we were trying to do, those are easily things we can address. The reality is we are what we are. I am very hopefull. I do think we have the potential in ourselves. We have the potential to be an outstanding rebounding team, with tremendous flexibility."
