Kia Vaughn Powers Rutgers Past St. John's 65-48
Feb 28 | Women's Basketball
QUEENS, N.Y. – Senior center Kia Vaughn (Bronx, N.Y.) just missed a triple double in leading Rutgers past St. John’s, 65-48 in BIG EAST women’s basketball action on Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena.
Vaughn had 16 points, 10 rebounds and a career-tying nine blocks for the Scarlet Knights (18-10, 9-6). The last Rutgers player to post a triple-double was current assistant coach Tasha Pointer, who had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists on Feb. 27, 2001.
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Redshirt freshman Khadijah Rushdan scored a 16 points in the win.
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Redshirt freshman Khadijah Rushdan (Wilmington, Del.) also scored 16 points, the first time she has led or co-led in scoring in her career. Rushdan has registered double figures in five of the last six games. Junior Epiphanny Prince (Brooklyn, N.Y.) added 14 points.
Da’Shena Stevens had 17 points for the Red Storm (16-12, 4-11).
The lead changed three times in the first eight minutes of the half as neither team led by more four points over the span. After the Red Storm cut the RU advantage to two (13-11), the Scarlet Knights answered with a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays. Prince converted the first two plus the bonus and Vaughn had the second with 10:49 on the clock to give Rutgers a 19-11 lead.
The Red Storm cut it to five on their next possession with a triple by Joy McCorvey. The Scarlet Knights put together a 7-2 run to pull ahead by nine, their largest lead of the half. Prince’ up-and-under lay-in gave Rutgers a 26-17 lead with 6:56 left in the half. RU led 28-22 at intermission.
SJU got to within 29-26 a minute and a half into the second half on a jumper by Stevens. Rutgers pieced together an 8-0 spurt over the next four minutes to go ahead by double-digits for the first time in the game. Rushdan and Vaughn tallied four points each during the drive. Freshman April Sykes (Starkville, Miss.) found Rushdan under the basket with 14:33on the clock to give RU a 37-26 edge and cap the run.
After SJU closed to 11, RU again used a scoring surge (8-2) to put some distance on the scoreboard. The Scarlet Knights moved to a 15-point lead with 7:27 remaining on a free throw by Rushdan, who scored 11 of her 16 points in the second half.
With the 65-48 win, Rutgers registered its 17th straight win over St. John’s. In addition, they improved to 31-3 all-time against the Red Storm.
Vaughn moved into third place all-time in the RU record book in rebounding and is three boards away from taking over sole possession of second place (Regina Howard, 1036 rebounds).
