WBB Meets Penn State on Super Bowl Sunday
Feb 06 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers women's basketball team heads to State College on Super Bowl Sunday for its lone meeting of the season with Penn State. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
| Game Twenty Four: Rutgers (13-10, 4-7 Big Ten) at Penn State (8-14, 3-8 Big Ten) | |
| Date | Sunday, Feb. 7 |
| Time | 2:00 p.m. EST |
| Location | Bryce Jordan Center | State College, Pa. |
| Video | BTN Plus |
| Radio | Rutgers IMG Radio Network (Ralph Bednarczyk & Mark Peterson) WRSU 88.7 FM (Dominick Savino & Lea Ginefra) |
| Live Stats | |
| Game Notes | Rutgers | Penn State |
| Conference Game Notes | Big Ten |
| Statistics | Rutgers | Penn State |
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY IN STATE COLLEGE
The Rutgers women's basketball team remains on the road this weekend as they travel out to State College for its lone meeting with Penn State on Super Bowl Sunday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
The Scarlet Knights are coming off an 85-72 loss at Minnesota on Thursday night. While RU dropped the contest, several Scarlet Knights reached notable milestones.
Senior Rachel Hollivay became Rutgers women's basketball's all-time career blocks leader with her five rejections against the Golden Gophers. Classmate Kahleah Copper set a new scoring benchmark with her 31 points going 9-of-19 from the field and 11-of-13 from the charity stipe. Additionally, Aliyah Jeune came off the bench for her first double figure scoring effort of her career with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including knocking down 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Assistant Coach Timothy Eatman will serve as acting head coach for the second consecutive game. Head coach C. Vivian Stringer will be attending services for her mother, Thelma Stoner, who passed away earlier this week.
ABOUT PENN STATE
The Scarlet Knights and Lady Lions meet for the 41st time in history on Sunday afternoon.
The Lady Lions enter the game at 8-14 overall and 3-8 in Big Ten play. Penn State has dropped three-straight including a double over time loss against Purdue in its last home game on Jan. 30 and an 87-69 setback at Nebraska on Feb. 2.
Penn State has four members of its roster averaging double digits including Teniya Page at a team-leading 15.5 points per game.
Brianna Banks is second on the stat sheet at 13.9 points per game and is followed by Lindsey Spann at 12.9 points per game.
Rounding out the double figure scorers is Kaliyah Mitchell at 10.1 points per game to go along with a team second-best 5.5 rebounds per game.
On the boards, Peyton Whitted leads the Lady Lions at 8.2 rebounds per game.
LAST TIME VS. PENN STATE
The No. 22/23 Rutgers women's basketball team extended its win streak to four with a 76-65 victory over Penn State at the RAC on Feb. 1, 2015 as head coach C. Vivian Stringer tied former Penn State coach Rene Portland for the most wins in Big Ten women's basketball play.
Kahleah Copper paced Rutgers for the second consecutive contest with a game-high and season-high 25 points. Tyler Scaife followed with 21 points, while Betnijah Laney recorded 16 points and 14 rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season.
Penn State had four players finish the game with double-figure scoring, led by Lindsay Spann from off the bench with 16 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc. Sierra Moore contributed 12 points in the loss, while Candice Agee and Peyton Whitted added in 11 points apiece.
Both teams got off to a slow start to open the game. Copper gave the Scarlet Knights their first six points of the contest, giving RU a 6-4 lead with 15:40 to go.
After nearly two scoreless minutes from both sides, the squads heated up. RU and PSU began a back-and-forth battle as Penn State pulled within one on four occasions across a three-minute span. With the score 15-14, Rutgers would go on an 8-1 run, capped by back-to-back three-pointers from the hands of Cynthia Hernandez.
PSU responded with a three-pointer of its own from Spann, but the Scarlet Knights took an 8-2 run for its largest lead of the opening stanza. RU held an 11-point, 31-20 edge with 5:27 left until the intermission.
Up 33-24, Rutgers would suffer nearly five scoreless minutes, but managed to hold off Penn State to carry a 37-28 lead into halftime.
Returning from the break, Penn State came alive on a 17-5 run to start the second half, generating a 47-42 lead. It marked the first advantage for the Lady Lions since the 17:65 in the first half and its largest lead of the night. Rutgers came out of the locker room going only 2-of-19 to open second half action.
After looking for a bucket for nearly five minutes, a jumper from Scaife put the momentum back in Rutgers' direction. Laney and Copper each completed a 2-of-2 trip to the charity stripe to put the Scarlet Knights back in front, 48-47, with 9:23 remaining.
Penn State would tie the contest 48-48 with 8:41 to play, however, Copper added on another free throw to give Rutgers the lead the rest of the way. Copper would score 10 of her game-high 25 points during this final span.
While the Scarlet Knights would stretch their lead to as many eight over the final minutes, the Lady Lions were able to pull was within two, 64-62, with 3:37 left.
After a layup by Peyton put the RU lead in jeopardy, Rutgers rattled off six unanswered points and outscored Penn State 12-3 to end the game.
BLOCK PARTY
With five rejections in RU's last time out at Minnesota, senior Rachel Hollivay became Rutgers women's basketball's all-time career blocks leader surpassing Rutgers legend and former WNBA standout Sue Wicks (1984-88).
Hollivay needs five more blocks to become the first Scarlet Knight with over 300 career rejections.
She also ranks fourth all-time among all Rutgers basketball student-athletes in career blocked shots. Only Hamady Ndiaye (2006-10) (358), Roy Hinson (1979-83) (355) and James Bailey (1975-79) (304) on the men's side have more career blocks.
Hollivay's five blocks also marked the 14th time this season and 51st time in her career she has recorded three or more rejections in a game.
The senior Scarlet Knight leads the Big Ten with 75 rejections and ranks third among all Division I players.
Hollivay ended her sophomore season with 127 rejections which ranks her third (men or women) in blocks in a single season. Only Hamady Ndiaye (2009-10) and Roy Hinson (1982-83) on the men's side have blocked more shots in a single season, swatting away 145 and 144, respectively.
Rutgers All-Time Blocked Shots
1. Rachel Hollivay (2012-present) - 295
2. Sue Wicks (1984-88) - 293
3. Kia Vaughn (2005-09) - 279
4. LaTonya Johnson (1988-92) - 248
5. Tanya Hansen (1988-92) - 245
LOOKING TO BECOME ROAD WARRIORS
Rutgers owns a 9-2 record on the 2015-16 season at the RAC, including winning eight of their last nine contests at home, but are continuing to look to add to the road win column. The Scarlet Knights are 4-8 away from the friendly confines of the hardwood in Piscataway, N.J.
CRACKING THE TOP TEN
With her 18 points against Ohio State on Sunday, Kahleah Copper became the ninth Scarlet Knight to collect over 1,600 career points.
She is currently eighth all-time in scoring at Rutgers surpassing Matee Ajavon (2004-08), a member of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, last Saturday against Nebraska.
Copper needs 26 more points to move into seventh all-time "On The Banks" past Tanya Hansen (1988-92).
Teammate Tyler Scaife also continues to move up the scoring leaders list. With 16 points against the Golden Gophers on Thursday evening she vaulted up two spots on the scoring leaders list past Liz Hanson (1992-06) and Kathy Glutz (1976-80) into 13th place. She currently has 1,419 career points needing 38 more points to slide into 12th all-time and 134 more points to crack the top 10.
FROSH NOTABLES
Two freshmen set new career highs in RU's loss at Minnesota on Thursday night.
Aliyah Jeune came off the bench for her first double figure scoring performance of her career. She finished the game with 10 points going 4-of-6 from the floor, including 2-of-4 from three-point range. Her previous high was four in the first meeting with Ohio State on Jan. 4.
Khadaizha Sanders handed out seven assists for a new career mark. Her previous high was five against Iowa on Jan. 4.
UP NEXT
The Rutgers women's basketball team returns home to host Northwestern on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.
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-RU-
