UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - Despite a late fourth quarter rally, the No. 25/21 Rutgers women's basketball team fell short on the road at Penn State Thursday evening dropping a 70-67 contest.
The Scarlet Knights reclaimed the lead with 39 seconds left in the game, but the Lady Lions were able to escape with the win as Teniya Page connected on 4-of-5 from the line for the final margin. Following a timeout, Rutgers advanced the ball with one second on the clock as redshirt senior
Tyler Scaife threw up a desperation 3-pointer that hit the rim, but did not make its target.
RU dropped to a record of 17-4 overall, suffering just its second Big Ten setback for a 5-2 league mark. Penn State, meanwhile, improved to 12-8 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
Redshirt junior
Stasha Carey posted her third double-double of the season and second-straight with 11 rebounds and 10 points. Junior
Khadaizha Sanders led the RU scorers with 14 points. Scaife added in 10 points with eight coming in the fourth quarter. Junior
Caitlin Jenkins also recorded 11 rebounds in the loss.
Penn State was led by Page with a game-high 34 points. Jaida Travascio-Green netted 15 points, while Amari Carter contributed 10 points to round out the Lady Lion double-figure scorers.
Rutgers opened the contest with 13-8 lead at 5:05 mark in the first quarter, but Penn State countered with an 11-4 lead to move in front 19-17 by the end of the frame.
Scaife tied the score at the start of the second quarter, which would be her only points outside the fourth frame, but Penn State reclaimed the lead. A Carey layup with 4:48 left until the half pulled RU within one, 25-24, but it would be the final field goal the Scarlet Knights would make prior to the intermission. The Lady Lions would go up again by as many as four, but Rutgers would close the gap to within a point again and knot the score at 26-26 on free throws by Sanders. From there, the squads entered a back-and-forth battle at the free throw line as Travascio-Green poured in the Lady Lions next seven points to help her squad to a 37-29 lead at the break.
The Scarlet Knights began the third quarter with a 6-2 burst to cut into the deficit, 35-39. The Lady Lions responded though with six-straight points of their own to regenerate the advantage to take a 45-35 lead with 6:15 to go in the quarter. Another defensive standoff commenced with neither team registering a basket for nearly three minutes.
Although Carey ended the scoreless drought, guiding the Scarlet Knights to another 6-0 surge, the Lady Lions halted the momentum to push their lead to 52-43 moving into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, Penn State took its largest lead of the night and held an 11-point, 61-50 edge with 5:33 to go. Rutgers did not let up, finding a 7-0 run to pull within four with 3:03 on the clock. Despite a Travascio-Green 3-pointer ending the burst, graduate student
Nigia Greene immediately sunk a 3-pointer of her own.
Greene's made bucket from beyond the arc set off eight-straight points for RU in the matter of 44 seconds. Following Greene's make from downtown, Penn State turned the ball over leading to Sanders drilling two shots from the line. Immediately after, the Lady Lions turned the ball over again where a Scaife "and one", put the Scarlet Knights in front for the first time since the first quarter as the Scarlet Knights led 65-64 with 1:22 remaining.
The teams traded the lead for the final seconds with RU holding a 67-66 edge with 39 seconds to go. PSU's Page was fouled on an attempt from behind the 3-point line and was also awarded two more shots from the stripe after the Rutgers bench was hit with a technical foul.
Page hit 4-of-5 to give Penn State the lead for good. Rutgers would advance the ball, as Scaife's 3-point attempt hit off the rim.
Up next, the Scarlet Knights return home to host Nebraska, another team vying for the biggest turnaround from last season. The Scarlet Knights and Huskers are set for a 6 p.m. tipoff on Sunday at the RAC with coverage on BTN Plus from Lou Brogno and Patrick Boyle and on the Rutgers IMG Radio Network from Ralph Bednarczyk and
Mark Peterson.
KNIGHT NOTES
- The first of three NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee top-16 reveals took place on Thursday night with Rutgers checking in at No. 15. Two other top-16 reveals are scheduled this season to take place on Thursday, February 1 and Monday, February 19.
- With the loss, Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer's career record falls to 994-394. She is six wins away from 1,000 career victories.
- With her 10 points, Scaife now has 2,042 career points. She needs 170 more to move into second place on the all-time list past Cappie Pondexter (2002-2006).
- Stasha Carey collected her second-straight double-double and third of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. It was the 16th double-double of her career. She has had double digit rebounds in three of her last four contests averaging 10.5 rebounds during the span.
- Carey logged a career-high six steals, surpassing her previous high of five logged three times, most recently vs. Houston on Dec. 16.
- Khadaizha Sanders captured a season-high with her 10 points, surpassing her previous high of nine at Temple on Nov. 13. Sanders finished the game 4-of-5 from the field and a perfect 6-of-6 from the line.
- Nigia Greene went perfect from downtown for the second time on the season going 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
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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