Copper, Scaife & Hollivay Earn All-B1G Honors
Feb 29 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Three Scarlet Knights represent the Rutgers women's basketball team on All-Big Ten teams, it was announced on BTN Monday evening. Senior forward Kahleah Copper (Philadelphia, Pa.) and junior guard Tyler Scaife (Little Rock, Ark.) were second team honorees, while senior center Rachel Hollivay (Columbus, Miss.) was a honorable mention selection.
Copper lands on the All-Big Ten Second Team for the second-straight season. Copper is averaging a team-second best 17.3 points per game and a team-leading 7.9 rebounds per game. She has performed 10 double-doubles this season and poured in 20 or more points on 11 occasions. In the last eight games, Copper has averaged 20.5 points per game. The senior Scarlet Knight currently ranks fifth on Rutgers all-time scoring leaders list with 1,790 career points. Earlier in the season, Copper was named the Paradise Jam All-Tournament MVP helping the Scarlet Knights to the tournament title behind 23.0 points and 7.7 rebounds over the course of the three games. The Philadelphia native was also among those selected to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Watch List, Naismith Trophy Early Season Watch List and Dawn Staley Mid-Season Watch list.
Scaife, who last season was an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honoree, joins Copper on the second team. Scaife leads the Scarlet Knights at 17.6 points per game and has led Rutgers in scoring in 15 contests this season. Against the Big Ten, she is pouring in 18.7 points per game and has reached double-figure scoring in all but one Big Ten contest including a season-high 27 points in contests at No. 5 Ohio State (Jan. 10) and against Illinois (Jan. 13). Scaife has netted 20 or more points in 14 contests, including three of the last four games to close out the regular season. She currently ranks 10th on Rutgers all-time scoring leaders list. Additionally, she was named to the Dawn Staley Mid-Season Watch list for the second consecutive year.
Hollivay picked up Honorable All-Big Ten, as well as, Big Ten All-Defensive Team accolades, her first conference post-season awards. Hollivay is Rutgers' all-time career blocks leader with 325 career rejections to date and is the only Scarlet Knight in women's basketball history to accumulate over 300 career blocks and have multiple seasons with 100 or more blocks. With 105 blocks to date in the 2015-16, she currently leads the Big Ten and is third nationally in the category. Hollivay has knocked away three or more opponent shots in 21 contests this season and ended the year averaging 4.5 blocks per game in the final 10 games of the regular season.
Sophomore Shrita Parker (Va. Beach, Va.) was recognized as Rutgers' representative of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. The Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winners are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These students-athletes must also be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.
The Rutgers women's basketball team (17-13, 8-10 Big Ten) opens up Big Ten Tournament play on Thursday, March 3. The 10th-seeded Scarlet Knights take on the seventh-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers at 6:30 p.m. on BTN.
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-
