Box Score | VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference
HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. - The fifth-seeded Rutgers women's basketball team knocked off 12th-seeded Indiana, 63-52, in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday afternoon at the Sears Centre Arena.
Rutgers will face fourth-seeded Northwestern tomorrow in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Tipoff is set for approximately 3 p.m. ET on BTN. Lisa Byington, Vera Jones and Christy Winters-Scott will be on the call.
Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) paced the Scarlet Knights with 16 points, followed by Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) with 14 points. Betnijah Laney (Clayton, Del.) capped off the double-figure scorers with 12 points, along with 15 rebounds for her 19th double-double of the season.
Indiana was led by Tyra Buss with a game-high 19 points, which included an 11-for-12 showing at the charity stripe. Karlee McBride contributed 10 points in the loss, including two baskets from beyond the arc.
Rutgers and Indiana kept the score balanced in the early moments, but the Scarlet Knights pulled away with eight unanswered points with 14:16 to go in the first half. Copper ran down the lane to cap the run and generated a 12-4 Rutgers edge, a lead the Scarlet Knights would never relinquish.
The Scarlet Knights held Indiana without a field goal for over a six minute span en-route to establishing a 16-8 edge at the 12:14 mark. After Hoosier leading scorer Larryn Brooks ended the Indiana drought, RU responded by re-establishing a 10-point cushion.
Indiana would find a 6-2 run to pull within six, 22-16, with under-seven minutes left until the half, but once again Rutgers would battle back to a 10-point advantage behind the return of Rachel Hollivay (Columbus, Miss.) to the hardwood.
Back-to-back three-pointers from the hands of Hoosier Karlee McBride would cut into RU's lead, 30-26, with 1:29 remaining until the intermission, but Indiana would not draw any closer the rest of the afternoon.
Cynthia Hernandez (Ventura, Calif.) beat the halftime buzzer to send Rutgers into the locker room with a 37-28 lead.
The Scarlet Knights opened the second stanza outscoring the Hoosiers, 10-4, as Scaife knocked in a basket to give RU its largest lead of the night at 49-32 with 14:07 remaining.
Rutgers would hold at least a 13-point advantage over the next 10 minutes of action. With 2:39 left on the clock, Indiana registered a 9-0 run but would only draw as close as 60-52 with under a minute remaining.
KNIGHT NOTES:
- The starting five of RU's first Big Ten Tournament game featured Kahleah Copper, Tyler Scaife, Briyona Canty, Syessence Davis and Betnijah Laney.
- Kahleah Copper led RU with 16 points in the win and has led the Scarlet Knights in scoring a team-leading 12 times this season. Copper scored 10 of her team-high 16 points in the first half.
- Copper notched her eighth-straight double-digit scoring game. She is averaging 20.6 points per game over the last eight outings.
- Betnijah Laney posted her 19th double-double of the year behind 12 points and 15 rebounds. She had six points and nine rebounds by the half. The senior Scarlet Knight now has 34 career double-doubles.
- Laney's 15 rebounds were the most since hauling in her RAC record 24 boards in the double overtime contest with UNC on Dec. 4. It was her fourth game with 15 or more rebounds. In her last three games, she is averaging 13.0 rebounds per contest.
- Tyler Scaife rounded out the double figure scorers with 14 points, the 23rd time this season she has reached double digits. The sophomore Scarlet Knight has 51 double figure scoring games in her 67 career appearances. She is also 41 points away from becoming the 36th Scarlet Knight with 1,000 career points.
- Rachel Hollivay returned to the court for the first time since the Feb. 22 game with Michigan State. She started the game off 3-of-3 from the floor and ended the afternoon with six points and two rebounds in 13 minutes of action.
- Briyona Canty dished ball out 10 times, the most since her 10 helpers in a double-double performance against Northeastern on Nov. 18. It tied her career mark.
- Syessence Davis registered two steals in the victory and is now only one steal shy of tying current assistant coach Tasha Pointer for the RU steals record. Davis has 291 thefts under her belt.
- Rutgers finished shooting 83.3 percent from the line and missed only one foul shot all afternoon. RU connected on its first five attempts from the charity stripe. - RU had led at halftime in 24 of its 30 contests to date and had a 37-28 advantage on the Hoosiers at the intermission.
- Indiana, who manage six three-pointers in the first meeting on Dec. 28, seven in the second meeting just last Sunday and entered the game averaging 7.8 made shots from downtown, connected on only 3-of-18 from beyond the arc.
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