Box Score
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The No. 20/18 Rutgers women's basketball team dropped a 80-60 contest at No. 25 Northwestern on Thursday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The loss dropped the Scarlet Knights to 20-8 overall and 11-6 in the Big Ten. Following Thursday night's contests, RU currently sits in fifth place in the league. Northwestern meanwhile upped its overall mark to 22-6 overall and 12-5 in the Big Ten and have won eight straight.
Betnijah Laney (Clayton, Del.) captured her 17th double-double of the year with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) was the other Scarlet Knight in double figures with 20.
Northwestern had five in double figures led by Ashley Deary with 19 points, while Nia Coffey contributed a double-double in the victory with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Maggie Lyon dropped in 17, Lauren Douglass came off the bench for 13 and Alex Cohen chipped in 10 points.
For the first 15 minutes of the opening stanza, Northwestern never held more than a four-point edge. The Scarlet Knights fought back to within two on five different occasions, but was unable to change the lead as the Wildcats managed to score on their following possessions. Rutgers only trailed by two, 20-18, with 5:44 left to play in the first half.
From there Northwestern scored seven unanswered points and ended the final five minutes of the first stanza outscoring the Scarlet Knights, 12-6, to take a 32-24 edge into the locker room at the half.
The Wildcats opened second half play on a 14-3 run, holding the Scarlet Knights without a field goal for just over five minutes. The run helped the Wildcats established a 19-point edge, 46-27, with 14:52 left to play.
Briona Canty (Willingboro, N.J.) gave RU its first field goal of the second half and was by followed by Shrita Parker (Va. Beach, Va.) hitting a three-pointer to cut the Scarlet Knights' deficit to 46-32 by the 14 minute mark. However, it would be the closest RU would get the rest of the evening.
Northwestern pushed its lead to 23 on six occasions. Rutgers managed a small run of its own after the Wildcat's Cohen hit two free throws to give her squad a 76-23 lead with 2:56 remaining. The Scarlet Knights used a 7-0 run over the next 1:20 to close the gap to within 16 and trail 76-60 with 1:17 left.
The Rutgers women's basketball team returns to action on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. Rutgers will honor its seniors - Betnijah Laney, Christa Evans, Syessence Davis and Alexis Burke prior to tip. The game can be seen on BTN Plus.
KNIGHT NOTES
- Thursday night's starting lineup featured Kahleah Copper, Tyler Scaife, Syessence Davis, Ariel Butts and Betnijah Laney.
- Rachel Hollivay sat out the game with a left groin strain suffered in the Michigan State game last Sunday. She is listed as day-to-day.
- Scarlet Knights trailed 32-24 at the half. RU is 0-6 when trailing at the half.
- The 20-point loss was the largest this season.
- For the seventh time in 2014-15, Rutgers had a pair of Scarlet Knights drop in 20 points.
- Betnijah Laney captured her 17th double-double of the year with a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds. It was her eighth game with 20 or more points on the season.
- With her 21 points, Laney moved past Kia Vaughn (2005-09) into 16th on the all-time scoring leaders list with 1,330 points. She needs 15 more points to move into 15th all-time in scoring past Tomora Young (1995-99).
- Kahleah Copper added in 20 points in her team-leading 10th 20+ point performance of the year.
- Syessence Davis dished the ball out five times, her 12th game of the year with five or more helpers.
- With her two steals, Davis now has 284 career thefts and is three steals away from tying Sue Wicks (1984-88) and Liz Hanson (1992-96) for second all-time and eight away from tying current assistant coach Tasha Pointer's all-time steals record.
- Rutgers fell to 10-4 on the road and has fallen in its last two contests away from the friendly confines of the RAC.
- RU was outrebounded for only the eighth time this season. Northwestern held a 41-37 edge on the glass.
Follow Rutgers women's basketball on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersWBB), Twitter (www.twitter.com/RutgersWBB) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/RutgersWBB) for all of the latest news and updates. Fans also receive timely information, including special offers and giveaways throughout the year on both social media outlets along with www.ScarletKnights.com.
-RU-
