PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women's basketball team opened its home slate with a 65-51 victory over Wake Forest on Sunday evening. The Scarlet Knights move to a record of 4-0 on the season.
Redshirt senior guard
Tyler Scaife paced RU with 19 points, followed by freshman forward
Tekia Mack with eight of her own. Redshirt sophomore guard
Ciani Cryor registered seven points and seven rebounds, while redshirt junior forward
Stasha Carey registered a team-high eight rebounds.
Wake Forest (2-2) was led by Ariel Stephenson with a game-best 25 points. Tyra Whitehead recorded nine rebounds for the Demon Deacons in the loss.
Rutgers cruised ahead, 12-0, to start the game as the Scarlet Knight defense held the Demon Deacons unsteady with their shots. Wake Forest tallied its first points on a Raegyn Branch 3-pointer with 3:59 to go in the first half. The Demon Deacons followed with a jumper, but RU halted a run from developing and pushed its advantage to a 15-5 at the end of the frame.
Opening the second quarter, Stephenson generated an 8-4 burst for Wake Forest, including two baskets from beyond the arc and a jumper, to cut into the Scarlet Knights lead, 19-13. However, RU countered with an 11-6 run of its own to push its lead back to double-digits at 30-19 with 3:52 to go until halftime.
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Khadaizha Sanders 3-pointer would close the first half giving the Scarlet Knights a 35-24 lead. Overall, 18 of RU's 35 first half points were scored in the paint and 10 points came off turnovers. Additionally, RU held Wake Forest to 10-of-31 from the field for 28.9 scoring percentage in the stanza.
Although the Scarlet Knights and Deacon Demons traded points in the third quarter, Rutgers held on to a double-digit lead, 45-31, halfway through the frame. Mack would extend the lead to 50-31 with an 8-0 run of her own, starting with a 3-pointer and ending with a 3-point play. Cryor followed Mack with back-to-back baskets from beyond the arc for RU's largest lead of the night at 56-34 with less than two minutes to go in the third.
For the remainder of the contest, the Scarlet Knights would hold a double-digit edge en route to victory.
Up next, Rutgers hits the road again. The Scarlet Knights head to the Gulf Coast Showcase during the Thanksgiving break and open the tournament with defending champion South Carolina on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
KNIGHT NOTES
- The Scarlet Knights improve to 4-0 on the season for the 15
th time in history and first time since 2014-15.
- Rutgers improved to 36-8 in home openers including a 17-6 mark under head coach
C. Vivian Stringer.
- Rutgers used the entire available roster for the fourth-straight game. The starting lineup of redshirt senior guards
Tyler Scaife and
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, redshirt junior forward
Stasha Carey, junior guard
Khadaizha Sanders and junior center
Victoria Harris was used for the fourth-straight game.
- With the win, Rutgers head coach Stringer improved her career record to 981-392 and is 19 wins away from 1,000 career victories.
- Tyler Scaife moved into eighth place on the all-time scoring leaders list past Tanya Hansen (1988-92) with her team-high 19 points. She needs 79 points to move in seventh place past Caroline DeRoose (1990-94).
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Ciani Cryor hauled in seven rebounds for a new career-high. Her previous high was four recorded against Wake Forest on Feb. 28, 2016.
- Cryor also led RU with five assists, a new season-high. She was one of nine Scarlet Knights with a helper in the victory.
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Stasha Carey led RU with a season-high eight rebounds.
- Rutgers drained seven 3-pointers. It was the most shots made from beyond the arc this season.
Follow Rutgers women's basketball at
www.ScarletKnights.com and (@RutgersWBB) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all of the latest news and updates.
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