PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers women's basketball team opened Big Ten play with a bang with a second half comeback to defeat Minnesota, 66-55, in a New Year's Eve showdown on Thursday afternoon at the RAC.
Rutgers improved to an overall record of 10-3 and a 1-0 mark in conference action, while Minnesota dropped to 8-4 overall and 0-1 in the league.
RU had two Scarlet Knights register double-doubles as senior Rachel Holivay (Columbus, Miss.) posted 14 points and 12 rebounds and classmate Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) notched 10 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Briyona Canty (Willingboro, N.J.) nearly completed the feat as she tied her career-high with 10 assists to go along with eight points, while also tying her career-best in steals (6). Junior Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) also contributed a game-high 23 points in the win.
The Gophers were led by Carlie Wagner with 22 points. Rachel Banham, who entered the contest averaging 23.1 points per contest, followed with 17 points, nine of which came from the three-point range.
Rutgers ran to a 6-0 lead to start the contest, holding Minnesota scoreless for nearly four minutes of play. The Gophers tacked on their first points with a three by Banham, but Scaife responded with a three of her own to extend the RU lead to 9-3 with 6:37 to go in the first.
Minnesota took control of the initial wire-to-wire battle, outscoring RU 21-4 to move in front, 24-13, at the start of the second quarter. The Scarlet Knights, however, found resurgence with seven straight points, capped by a steal by Canty to set up a three by senior Cynthia Hernandez (Ventura, Calif.), to pull RU within four with 5:02 to go in the half.
Although Rutgers never let up and was able to cut the deficit to two at 29-27, Minnesota held firm to its edge to carry a 33-27 lead into halftime.
The Gophers were able to hold at least a five-point cushion throughout a majority of the third quarter, leading 44-36 with 1:59 to go in the frame. However, after the Scarlet Knights responded with a 7-0 run to close out the third and was able to re-claim the lead, 45-44, with 9:32 to go in the fourth.
A back-and-fourth battle ensued well into the game's final frame, as the lead changed and the score was tied at 59-59. A Scaife basket followed by a three-point play from sophomore Shrita Parker (Va. Beach, Va.) put RU up for good, 54-49, with 3:16 to go in the contest.
Rutgers ended the fourth quarter outscoring the Gophers 25-11.
KNIGHT NOTES:
- Rutgers improved to 2-0 in Big Ten openers.
- The Scarlet Knights improved to 1-1 in Big Ten home openers.
- Rutgers improved to 6-1 at home in 2015-16.
- The Scarlet Knights went undefeated during its five-game homestand to close out 2015.
- RU overcame an 11-point deficit for the victory as the Scarlet Knights trailed, 24-13, with just under six minutes remaining in the second quarter. The margin ties for largest deficit overcome for a victory as the Scarlet Knights were also down by 11 to Green Bay in a 54-43 victory in the Paradise Jam.
- Both Rachel Hollivay and Kahleah Copper collected double-doubles, the first Scarlet Knight duo with double-doubles since Betnijah Laney (14 pts, 10 reb) and Briyona Canty (10 pts, 10 ast) both had double-double performances against Northeastern on Nov. 19, 2014.
- Tyler Scaife poured in a game-high 23 points, her sixth game of the season with 20 or more points. Additionally, it was Scaife's seventh time leading the team in scoring this season and 37th time in her career.
- Scaife has averaged 25.5 points against the Golden Gophers having also notched a season-high 28 points last season against Minnesota.
- Scaife moved into 24th all-time in scoring with her 23-point afternoon past Julie Salmon (1982-86). Scaife currently has 1,240 points and needs seven more points to move past Tammy Sutton-Brown (1997-01).
- Kahleah Copper performed her fourth double-double of the season and ninth of her career with 10 points and 11 boards.
- With her 10 points, Copper needs just 10 more points to crack the top 10 in scoring at Rutgers and become the 11th Scarlet Knight with 1,500 career points. She currently has 1,491 points.
- Rachel Hollivay captured her third career double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. She also had double figure scoring and rebounding games against Howard (26 pts, 13 reb) on Nov. 22, 2013 and SMU (14 pts, 10 reb) on Feb. 8, 2014.
- Hollivay also swatted away six Golden Gopher shots tying her season-high. Hollivay also had six blocks this season in games with Iona (Dec. 9) and LSU (Dec. 19) She has had three or more rejections in a game on eight occasions this season and 45 times in her career.
- Briyona Canty tied her career-high with 10 assists having also registered 10 helpers against Northeastern and vs. Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament last season. To date, Canty is averaging 4.5 assists per game.
- In addition to her 10 assists, Canty committed just one turnover.
- Canty also tied her career-high with six steals also having six thefts against Wagner on Nov. 25, 2014.
- RU turned the ball over 10 times to tie a season low. The Scarlet Knights also only had 10 turnovers in its 65-26 win over Savannah State on Dec. 13.
- Rutgers outscored Minnesota, 30-18, in the paint. It was the most points in the paint for the Scarlet Knights since dropping 34 inside in a 75-51 win over Tulane on Nov. 26.
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