PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers women's basketball team sailed away with a 70-45 victory over in-state rival Seton Hall on Friday afternoon at the RAC.
The win marked four-straight for the Scarlet Knights who moved to 9-2 on the season. Meanwhile, Seton Hall dropped to 6-2.
Redshirt junior forward
Stasha Carey led Rutgers with a double-double, including a season-high 15 rebounds and 10 points. Redshirt senior guard
Tyler Scaife posted her sixth 20+ scoring effort of the season with a game-high 23 points. Redshirt sophomore
Ciani Cryor rounded out the double-figure scorers with a season-best 16 points, three shy of her career high.
The Pirates were paced by Donnaizha Fountain with a double-double that included 10 points and 11 rebounds.
After Seton Hall opened scoring with a layup, Rutgers rattled off seven straight for a 7-2 edge nearly four minutes into the game. Although the Pirates' Shadeen Samuels connected on a free throw to stop the early burst, RU was not stumped, going on another 7-2 run for a 14-7 lead at the 2:35 mark of the first quarter.
Rutgers went on to carry a 16-11 lead into the second quarter, but Seton Hall erased the advantage with six unanswered points with 8:06 to go in the frame. Back-to-back jumpers for Scaife returned the lead to RU, 20-17. Seton Hall's Fountain responded with a 3-pointer to tie up the count with 5:13 on the clock.
From there, the teams entered a stalemate on the court before two
Khadaizha Sanders' free throws put RU back in front, 22-20. Her shots from the stripe helped guide Rutgers to a 30-22 advantage at halftime, as Scaife went 6-of-7 at the charity stripe during that span.
Rutgers brought its lead to double-digits with a layup from Scaife to open the second half. However, the squads would go on to trade points on the floor as Seton Hall inched back within two at 34-32 with 3:23 to go in the third quarter off a 3-pointer by Deja Winters and 1-of-2 from the line by Kaela Hilaire . The Scarlet Knights held on as Cryor beat the buzzer with a bucket from beyond the arc for a 41-32 RU lead at the end of the frame.
Moving into the fourth and final frame, the Scarlet Knights held onto their momentum kicking off the quarter with nine unanswered points and pushing to a 50-34 advantage midway through the quarter. Rutgers did not stop there going on to lead by as many as 26 points across the waning minutes of the game.
The Scarlet Knights closed the game outscoring the Pirates, 29-13, in the final quarter.
The Jersey opponents continue for the Scarlet Knights. Up next, Rutgers hosts Fairleigh Dickinson for a 2 p.m. matchup at the RAC on Sunday. The game wil be streamed live on BTN Plus with Lou Brogno on the call while fans can also tune in on the Rutgers IMG Radio Network with Ralph Bednarczyk and
Mark Peterson providing the action.
KNIGHT NOTES
- With the win, Rutgers head coach Stringer improved her career record to 986-392 and is 14 wins away from 1,000 career victories.
- The Pirates entered Friday's game averaging 81.8 points per game, but were held to a season-low 45 points.
- In the last two games, RU has allowed opponents to average just 44.0 points per game. This also includes the 43 points netted by the Cavaliers in Monday night's contest. Virginia entered the game averaging 63.2 points per contest.
- Rutgers shot a season best 50.9 percent (27-of-53) from the floor and season best 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from 3-point range. It was RU's best shooting percentage since connecting at a 52.6 clip (30-of-57) against Penn State on Feb. 27, 2016 and the Scarlet Knights' best percentage from downtown since hitting 63.6 percent (7-of-11) at Iona on Dec. 9, 2015.
- Stasha Carey recorded RU's third double-double of the year with her 10 points and 15 rebounds. Caitlin Jenkins had the Scarlet Knights' two other double-doubles during the trip to Florida for the Gulf Coast Showcase over Thanksgiving break.
- After three consecutive games hauling in nine rebounds, Carey set a new season-high with 15 rebounds. It was the fourth time this season a Scarlet Knight has grabbed double-digit rebounds. Caitlin Jenkins registered the other three.
- Carey's was one rebound short of her career-high. She captured 16 vs. Niagara while at Pittsburgh on Nov. 17, 2014.
- Carey's 15 rebounds were the most by a Scarlet Knight since Betnijah Laney's 15 boards against Indiana in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on March 5, 2015.
- With her 23 points, Tyler Scaife upped her career point total 1,835 career points. Scaife needs 37 more points to surpass former teammate Kahleah Copper (2012-16) for third on the Rutgers all-time scoring leaders list.
- Scaife's 23 points marked her sixth 20+ scoring effort of the 2017-18 season.
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