WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. - In a tightly contested overtime battle, the Rutgers women's basketball team was edged by Purdue, 74-68, on Thursday night at Mackey Arena. Junior Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) and senior Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) each finished with 20-plus points, while redshirt senior Briyona Canty (Willingboro, N.J.) registered a career-high in assists.
RU dropped to an overall mark of 16-13 and a Big Ten record of 7-10, while Purdue improved to 18-12 overall and 9-8 in league play.
Scaife tied the game-high with 23 points, while Copper followed with 22. Senior Rachel Hollivay (Columbus, Miss.) followed with 15 points to go with nine rebounds. Canty's 12 assists in the win marked a new career-best.
Purdue was led by McBryde with 23 points in the win. Morrissette followed with 17 points, while Wilson and Horrocks rounded out the double-digit scorers with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
With the score knotted 4-4 by the first media timeout, RU took its first lead of the night, 6-4, returning from the break with 4:17 to go in the first quarter. Although the score would be tied on two more occasions, Purdue would go on to post six straight points to end the frame with a 14-8 lead.
Rutgers opened the second quarter with four consecutive points to bring the margin within two at 14-12 with 7:16 on the clock. After being held scoreless for nearly three minutes, Purdue responded with five straight of their own, as a three-pointer from Morrisette gave the Boilermakers a 19-12 lead with 6:15 on the clock.
RU would bring the margin back to three at 19-16 on back-to-back jumpers from Scaife and Parker. However, the Boilermakers outscored the Scarlet Knights 10-4 to generate a 29-20 lead entering halftime. The nine-point margin marked the largest gap across the first half.
The Scarlet Knights found its rhythm in the third quarter. A traditional three-point play for Hollivay opened the quarter's scoring, guiding RU on a 16-7 burst to tie the score 36-36 with 3:10 on the clock. Another three-point play, this time for Copper, put RU in front 39-36, marking Copper's seventh straight point.
Rutgers grew its lead to as many as five, 43-38, with a little less than two minutes to go in the third. Purdue countered by bringing the margin within two, however, as RU held onto a 45-42 advantage moving into the fourth.
The Scarlet Knights re-extended its edge to 47-42 to start the frame. The Boilermakers responded by diminishing the margin to one on two occasions before sneaking in front 50-49.
Purdue reclaimed the lead to 55-49 with 5:10 remaining in the game.
RU never let up pulling the margin back within one, 59-58, on the lone made basket from beyond the arc stemming from the hands of Copper with less than a minute to go.
Trailing 61-58 with 18 seconds on the clock, Canty drove to the basket, as Hollivay scored on the put back, while also picking up a trip to the charity stripe. The senior drained a free throw to tie the game 61-61 with seven seconds remaining.
The defense held strong denying a Purdue layup on its trip down the court to send the game into overtime.
Although Rutgers would move to a 66-63 in the extra period, Purdue countered with a seven straight to move in front 70-66 with 46 seconds remaining. Scaife stumped the run on a fast break to set the score at 70-68.
Despite various attempts for RU at the three-point range, the Boilermakers tacked on four points at the free throw line for the game's final margin.
The Rutgers women's basketball team returns to action on Sunday, February 28th to host Michigan on senior day. Fans are asked to arrive early as seniors Rachel Hollivay, Briyona Canty, Alana Ferruggiaro, Cynthia Hernandez and Ariel Butts along with the Scarlet Knights' senior managers and practice players will be honored 10 minutes prior to tip. The game will air on BTN with Lisa Byington and Christy Winters Scott on the call.
KNIGHT NOTES
- Kahleah Copper moved into sixth place on the all-time scoring leaders list past Caroline DeRoose (1990-94). She currently has 1,770 career points and needs 20 more points to move into fifth place and surpass Telicher Austin (1985-89).
- Tyler Scaife also moved closer to cracking the top 10 in scoring at RU. With her 23 points, she brought her career total to 1,530 needing 23 points to pass Epiphanny Prince (2006-09) for the 10th position on scoring leaders list.
- Thursday marked the third game of the season the Scarlet Knights had two scoring 20 or more points in a game with Copper's 22 and Scaife's 23. The duo also had 20 or more points apiece in victories over Northwestern and St. Joseph's.
- Copper notched her 10th 20+ point scoring game of the season and 32nd of her career.
- Scaife captured her 13th 20+ point scoring game of the season and 30th of her career.
- Rachel Hollivay finished with a season-high 15 points. Her previous high was 14 against Illinois on Jan. 13 and Minnesota on Dec. 31.
- Hollivay was one rebound shy of posting her fifth double-double of the year.
- Briyona Canty set a new career-high with 12 assists. Her previous high was 10 dished out against Minnesota this season on Dec. 31 as well as last season against Northeastern and against Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament.
- Canty now has 417 career helpers and is ninth all-time in the category "on the banks".
- Canty's 12 assists are the most since Matee Ajavon handed out 13 assists against TCU on March 21, 2006.
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