WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. - The No. 21/19 Rutgers women's basketball team suffered a 47-33 loss to Purdue on the road Wednesday night, splitting the series with the Boilermakers. The loss halted an 11-game win streak for the Scarlet Knights.
RU fell to 16-3 overall and collected its first Big Ten defeat of the year to move to 4-1. Purdue improved to 11-8 overall and 2-2 in league action.
Redshirt senior Tyler Scaife collected her 2,000th career point, leading the Scarlet Knight scorers with nine points in the contest. Junior forward Stasha Carey followed with seven points and six rebounds, while junior center Victoria Harris added in a career-high six steals in the loss.
The first quarter opened as a low scoring, defensive battle on the court with a 2-2 score at the 6:23 minute mark. From there, Purdue broke away on the scoreboard with a 6-0 run to generate an 8-2 lead with less than two minutes to go in the quarter.
Junior center Desiree Keeling would end a six-minute scoring drought for the Scarlet Knights, closing the first frame with a jumper and opening the second quarter with another jumper for an 8-4 margin. However, the Boilermakers controlled the lead with success at the free throw line throughout the stanza, establishing a 25-10 advantage by halftime.
Rutgers tacked on four-straight points to open the second half, leading to a 6-2 burst that cut into the margin 27-18 midway through the third stanza. Purdue, however, would end the frame with a 6-0 run for a 36-20 edge.
The Boilermakers held at least a 10-point edge until a Ciani Cryor 3-pointer, Rutgers' first points from long range, pulled the Scarlet Knights within single digits at 41-33 with just under a minute to go in the game. Purdue though was able to hold Rutgers off for the win.
Up next, Rutgers returns home to host Minnesota on Saturday afternoon at the RAC. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network with Ed Cohen and Christy Winters-Scott on the call. The game will also air on the Rutgers IMG Radio Network with Ralph Bednarczyk and Mark Peterson.
KNIGHT NOTES
- The loss drops Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer career record to 993-393. She is seven wins away from 1,000 career victories.
- The Scarlet Knights' 11-game win streak was halted. It was the longest win streak since ending the season with six-straight wins to capture the 2014 WNIT title and beginning the 2014-15 season with six consecutive victories.
- The loss snapped RU's four-game Big Ten win streak. The Scarlet Knights were off to their best start in Big Ten history and best start in conference play since opening with four-straight wins in 2013-14 in the American Athletic Conference.
- With her first score of the night at the 4:36 mark of the second quarter, Tyler Scaife became the third Scarlet Knight to reach the 2,000 career point mark.
- With her nine points, Scaife now has 2,007 points. She needs 205 more to move into second place on the all-time list past Cappie Pondexter (2002-2006).
- Scaife was limited to single digits for the first time in 2017-18. The redshirt senior has only scored in single figures in 19 of her 123 career contests.
- Victoria Harris notched a career-high six steals, surpassing her previous high of four captured on four occasions, most recently against Houston in the nonconference finale on Dec. 16 and Illinois on Jan. 3. The Georgia native has 3.0 steals per game in Big Ten play this season.
- Rutgers went 2-of-12 in the first quarter marking the fewest field goals made in a quarter this season.
- The Scarlet Knights' 10 first half points were the fewest by Rutgers this season. RU's previous low was 26, which occurred twice. First, in trailing No. 3/2 South Carolina 33-26 at intermission enroute to a 78-68 setback and leading 26-17 at the break against Virginia on the way to a 52-43 win.
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