ST. THOMAS, USVI -- The Rutgers women's basketball team led wire-to-wire in a 75-51 win over Tulane in the opening game of the Paradise Jam to guide head coach C. Vivian Stringer to her 435th victory at the helm of the Scarlet Knight program, the most wins by any basketball coach "On The Banks".
The win gave Rutgers its second-straight win and improved the Scarlet Knights to 3-2 on the season. Tulane, meanwhile, fell to 3-2 on the year.
Rutgers raced out to a 15-3 lead with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter, which included the Scarlet Knights putting away nine unanswered points.
Ahead 19-9 at the end of the first quarter, Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) entered double figure territory on the first basket of the second quarter en-route to her game-high 28 points. Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) gave RU its largest lead of the first half as her layup presented the Scarlet Knights a 14-point cushion with a 25-11 advantage at the 6:32 mark of the second quarter.
Shortly thereafter Tulane began to warm up. The Green Wave executed a 9-0 run and cut RU's lead down to five, 25-20, with 3:44 left until the intermission. The tide turned however as the Scarlet Knights outscored Tulane, 12-5, to close out the second half including a quarter ending buzzer beater from three by Khadaizha Sanders (Kankakee, Ill.). RU took a 37-25 lead into the half.
Tulane never drew closer than 11 in the early moments of the third quarter and RU extended its advantage to over 20 in the fourth quarter.
Rutgers ended the afternoon shooting 7-of-15 from three-point range with six different Scarlet Knights connecting from beyond the arc.
In addition to Copper's 28 points, Scaife was RU's other double figure scorer contributing 11 in the victory.
Tulane's Kolby Morgan led the Green Wave with 13 points and Courtnie Latham had 11.
The Rutgers women's basketball team takes on Virginia on Friday, Nov. 27 in its second game of the Paradise Jam. Tip off is set for 3:15 p.m. (ET)/4:15 (AT). The Cavaliers defeated Green Bay, 68-59,
KNIGHT NOTES:
- Head coach C. Vivian Stringer surpassed Theresa Grentz as the all-time leader in basketball victories -- men or women -- at Rutgers. She currently holds a 435-218 record in her 21 seasons "On The Banks". The only other Rutgers head coach in history with more wins is former baseball coach Fred Hill who accumulated 941 wins between 1984 and 2014.
- Kahleah Copper was two points shy of tying her career-high with 28 points against the Green Wave. It was her second game of the season and 24th of her career with 20 or more points in a game. She has reached double figure scoring in her last 16 straight contests.
- With her 28 points, Copper moved past Shawnetta Stewart (1997-00) into 15th all-time in scoring at Rutgers. Copper currently has 1,370 career points and needs 32 more points to surpass her former teammate, Betnijah Laney.
- Copper also led the team in scoring for a third time in 2015-16 and for the 37th time in her four years at Rutgers.
- Tyler Scaife's 11 points made her the 30th Scarlet Knight in history to score over 1,100 career points. She currently has 1,102 career points.
- Rutgers shot a .467 percent from three-point range going 7-of-15 from long range. To date, the Scarlet Knights are shooting .429 from beyond the arc, the best three-point shooting percentage since the 2005-06 season when RU ended the year hitting .401 percent.
- Briyona Canty handed out five assists, the third time with five or more helpers this season and 24th time in her career.
- Rachel Hollivay swatted away three Tulane shots and now has 230 career rejections. She needs 16 more blocks to move past Tanya Hansen (1988-92) in fourth place on RU's all-time block leaders list.
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