Box Score Nov. 14, 2014

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The No. 24 Rutgers women's basketball team opened its inaugural season as a member of the Big Ten cruising to a 76-52 win over St. Joseph's on Friday night at the RAC.

Rutgers, the 2014 WNIT Champions, keeps its win streak rolling with seven straight victories dating back to last season following the season opening victory against a Hawks' squad that reached the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament.

Last season's American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year started off right where she ended, as sophomore guard Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) led all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the floor.

In all, four Scarlet Knights reached double figures in Friday's season opener. Redshirt junior guard Briyona Canty (Willingboro, N.J.) matched her career-best with 16 points and dished out a career-high eight assists. Senior Betnijah Laney (Clayton, Del.), who had 15 double-doubles a year ago, posted another one with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Junior Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) added in 14 points before leaving the game in the second half with a leg cramp.

With the score tied at 16-16 midway through the first half, Scaife connected on three free throws and Copper had a put back to give the Scarlet Knights an advantage for good. Over the course of the final seven minutes of the opening stanza, RU outscored the Hawks, 14-8, to take a 30-24 lead into the half.

While St. Joseph's knocked down two early jumpers to cut its deficit down to three to start off second half play, Rutgers would go on to shoot a blistering 62 percent from the floor in the half. After the Hawks' Ciara Andrews shrunk the Scarlet Knights' lead to 30-27, only three minute later, RU would have a double digit lead it would never relinquish the rest of the way.

Scaife, who in the second half went 6-of-6 from the field, gave RU a 40-29 edge with 15:09 to go and the Scarlet Knights' edge would only increase. Laney collected her double-double with 3:14 left to play give Rutgers a 20-point, 70-50, cushion.

Freshman Shrita Parker (Va. Beach, Va.) sunk a pair of free throws to give the game its final margin, her first collegiate points.

Andrews finished with 19 points in the loss for St. Joseph's. Sara Fairbanks, the Hawks' returning leading scorer, added 16 in the loss. Natasha Cloud, who posted 11.5 points a year ago, was held to just three points. One of the top play makers in the country, Cloud registered 10 assists.

The Rutgers women's basketball team returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 18 against Northeastern. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the RAC.

KNIGHT NOTES
- First starting line-up of the year was Rachel Hollivay, Kahleah Copper, Tyler Scaife, Briyona Canty and Betnijah Laney.
- The Scarlet Knights finished with four in double figures.
- RU improved to 28-13 all-time in season openers and 11-9 in openers under head coach C. Vivian Stringer. Additionally the Scarlet Knights are now 35-6 in home openers, including a 16-4 mark under Stringer.
- Tyler Scaife opened her sophomore season with a game-high 23 points. It was her eighth 20+ point game of her career and 29th double digit scoring effort. Scaife shot 9-of-13 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
- Briyona Canty who served as RU's "sixth woman" last year added in 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting and a perfect 4-of-4 performance from the line.
- Canty also dished out a new career-mark in assists with eight. Her previous high was seven in last season's loss at UMass. It was her ninth career game with five or more assists. Seven of those contests came last season.
- Kahleah Copper dropped in 14 points for her 36th career double-digit scoring game. Last season, Copper reached double digits in 31 of her 36 appearances. She opened last season with 11 straight games scoring 10 or more points.
- Rachel Hollivay swatted away five SJU shots. It was her 24th career game with three or more rejections. She currently has 154 career blocks and needs 24 more blocks to move into fourth all-time on RU's career blocked shots list.
- Junior college transfers Cynthia Hernandez and Natalie Parsons, along with freshman Shrita Parker all made their Scarlet Knight debuts. Parker connected on two free throws for the game's final margin, while Parson added in an assist. Parson's fed Rachel Hollivay underneath the basket to give RU a 74-52 edge with 1:49 remaining.
- RU, who owned the paint last season scoring 30 or more points inside last season 26 times, notched 34 in Friday's win.
- The Scarlet Knights committed just 11 turnovers. Conversely, the Hawks had 21 miscues leading to 24 points for Rutgers.

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