PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 25/21 Rutgers women's basketball suffered its first home loss of the season in a 52-42 setback to Nebraska on Sunday night at the RAC.
Rutgers fell to a record of 17-5 overall and a 5-3 in the Big Ten, while moving to a record of 12-1 at home. Nebraska improved to 14-6 overall and 5-2 in league action.
While seven Scarlet Knights contributed to scoring, redshirt senior
Tyler Scaife led the way with 20 points from off the bench, marking her 14th 20+ performance of the season. Redshirt junior
Stasha Carey hauled in eight rebounds and recorded five steals, one-shy of her career-high set last game, in the loss.
Nebraska was paced by Kate Cain with 14 points and eight rebounds. Jasmine Cincore followed with 11 points to round out the double-figure scorers for the Cornhuskers.
Despite Rutgers posting the first points of the night, Nebraska would go on to generate an 11-7 edge between the teams. The Scarlet Knights were held without a field goal over the final 5:28 of the frame, missing their last five shots and committing five turnovers during the span for Nebraska to take the lead.
Moving into the second quarter, the Huskers pushed their lead to 18-9 at the 8:34 mark. Graduate student guard
Nigia Greene halted the momentum with a 3-pointer and Scaife rattled off eight-straight points as RU whittled down its deficit to within three points three times before the halftime buzzer. Nebraska, however, held off the comeback, closing the first half with a 27-22 lead on the scoreboard.
Rutgers opened the third quarter on a 7-4 run with Scaife contributing all seven points to set the margin at 31-29 with 6:04 on the clock. The teams would go on to trade shots throughout the remainder of the frame with the Huskers holding the edge for a 42-35 lead at the end of the stanza.
The Scarlet Knights responded with a 7-3 burst to start the fourth quarter. Greene connected a bucket from downtown to set the score at 45-42 with 5:56 to go, but it was as close as RU would come. The Huskers would hold RU scoreless the rest of the way while going on to generate its largest lead of the night with seven unanswered points for the game's final margin.
Up next, Rutgers hits the road for its first and only meeting with Indiana this season on Saturday, Jan. 27. The game will air live on BTN with Chris Vosters and Brenda VanLenegan on the call. WRSU, Rutgers student radio station, will also air the contest.
KNIGHT NOTES
- With the loss, Rutgers head coach
C. Vivian Stringer's career record falls to 994-395. She is six wins away from 1,000 career victories.
- Rutgers fell in its first contest at the RAC this season dropping to 12-1 at home. It was RU's longest home win streak since winning 20-straight at the RAC between Nov. 16, 2007 and Dec. 29, 2008.
- With her 20 points, Scaife now has 2,062 career points. She needs 150 more to move into second place on the all-time list past Cappie Pondexter (2002-2006).
- Scaife had her 14
th 20+ point scoring game of the season. The redshirt senior had 10 first half points and 10 points in the third quarter.
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Stasha Carey registered a game-high five steals marking the fifth game this season with five or more thefts. In the last two games, the redshirt junior has averaged 5.5 steals.
- Carey also hauled in a team-high eight rebounds. In the last five games, she has averaged 10.0 boards per contest.
- Rutgers' 16 points in the paint were the second fewest this season by the Scarlet Knights. RU entered the game averaging 32.0 points inside over the previous six games.
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