PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers women's basketball team cruised to a 59-47 victory over Siena on Saturday afternoon at the RAC. It marked the Scarlet Knights seventh win of the season, surpassing last year's win total in their ninth game of the season.
Two Scarlet Knights finished in double figures, as redshirt senior guard
Tyler Scaife led the way with a game-high 18 points and moved up another position on the all-time scoring leaders list into seventh place. Redshirt sophomore guard
Ciani Cryor followed with 10 points of her own in the win. Redshirt junior forward
Stasha Carey collected a season-high nine rebounds, while junior forward
Caitlin Jenkins matched her career-best with six blocks.
Siena was led by Kollyns Scarbrough with 10 points in the loss. Anna Lundquist and Karolina Severova followed with eight and six points, respectively, including two 3-pointers each.Rutgers cruised to a 20-7 lead over Siena in the first quarter, as 13 Scarlet Knights entered the game with eight contributing to the score. Redshirt senior guard
Kathleen Fitzpatrick sunk a 3-pointer to end the frame, setting the strong RU advantage.
The Scarlet Knights grew its lead to as many as 15 in the second quarter before the Saints discovered a 15-5 run. The burst, capped by two 3-pointers for Lundquist, brought Siena within single digits at 27-22 with 4:51 to go until halftime.
Scaife stopped the Siena surge with back-to-back jumpers, igniting a 10-0 RU run to end the first half. The redshirt senior registered eight points across that span to bring the Scarlet Knight advantage back to double-digits, 37-22, at the break.
Moving into the third quarter, Scaife picked up where she left off with a jumper to put RU's lead at 39-22. Although the Saints tacked on back-to-back jumpers of their own, Scaife remained hot with a 3-pointer to deny a run from developing. The Scarlet Knights held at least a 13-point lead for the remained for the quarter, entering the fourth with 47-33 edge.
In the final frame, RU opened with a 12-5 run, as Cryor capped a Scarlet Knight burst with a 3-pointer and jumper just seconds apart to give the Scarlet Knights its largest lead of the afternoon, 59-39, with 3:16 to go in the game. Siena tacked on seven-straight points to close the frame, including two 3-pointers from Severova, but it was not enough to catch up to the Scarlet Knights.
Up next, Rutgers continues its homestand with Virginia on Monday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. ET live on the Big Ten Network with Lisa Byington and Shelley Till on the call. The Rutgers IMG Radio Network will also carry the game with Lou Brogno and
Mark Peterson calling the action.
KNIGHT NOTES
- With the win, Rutgers head coach Stringer improved her career record to 984-392 and is 16 wins away from 1,000 career victories
- With her 18 points, Tyler Scaife moved in sixth place on the all-time scoring leader list past Telicher Austin (1985-89). She now has 1,790 career points and needs three more points to move past Vicky Picott (1987-91) into fifth place on the list.
- Caitlin Jenkins tied her career-high with six blocks. It marked the most rejections by a Scarlet Knight since Victoria Harris' five blocks in last year's season opener with Chattanooga on Nov. 11.
- Ciani Cryor reached double digits for the second time as a Scarlet Knight with her 10 points. She was one-point shy of tying her season-high of 11 set against Temple back on Nov. 13.
- Siena committed 20 turnovers, the eighth time this season an RU opponent has registered 20 or more miscues.
- Stasha Carey hauled in a season-high nine boards for the second-straight game.
- Jordan Wallace also set a new season-high in the rebounding department with six boards. It was the most rebounds for the sophomore center since grabbing five in the season opener with James Madison on Nov. 10.
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