IOWA CITY, IOWA – The #14/18 Rutgers women's basketball team pulled with a point with 1:41 to go, but was unable to get past the #17/15 Iowa on Wednesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as the Hawkeyes pulled out a 72-66 victory to snap the Scarlet Knights' 10-game win streak.
Rutgers suffered its first loss since November and dropped to 15-4 overall and 7-1 in the Big Ten. Iowa remained undefeated at home and improved to 14-4 overall and 6-2 in league action.
Redshirt senior forward Stasha Carey led RU with 17 points, while redshirt sophomore Arella Guirantes added in 12 points and redshirt junior Ciani Cryor netted 11. Senior forward Caitlin Jenkins had seven boards.
The nation's leading scorer in Iowa's Megan Gustafson netted 32 points on 13-of-16 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds. Kathleen Doyle added 17 points in the win.
FIRST QUARTER
The opening 10 minutes of the game endured 10 ties and 10 lead changes and was deadlocked at 21-21 at the end.
Carey scored 10 her 17 points in the opening quarter taking advantage of Gustafson getting a break on the bench late in the frame.
Gustafson, however, scored the Hawkeye's first 13 points of the quarter and 15 of Iowa's 21 total points.
SECOND QUARTER
Rutgers opened up the quarter with five answered off a jumper from Guirantes and a 3-pointer from Sierra Calhoun.
The Hawkeyes, however, countered with a 10-0 run to go up 31-26 with 4:08 left until the intermission.
Cryor put a stop to the Iowa run with a shot from beyond the arc and RU was able to limit the Hawkeyes to 1-of-5 shooting from there.
The Scarlet Knights got back-to-back buckets from Zipporah Broughton to tie the game for a 14th time at 33-33 in the closing moments. Gustafson, however, was able to capture her 18th point of the game off a put back to give Iowa a 35-33 edge at the intermission in the final minute.
THIRD QUARTER
Iowa generated as much as six-point lead twice and was up 45-39 with 6:04 on the clock. The Scarlet Knights, however, did not fold.
The next five minutes saw RU outscore Iowa, 9-4, to close the gap to within one. A Jenkins putback off a missed 3-pointer from Calhoun saw the Scarlet Knights trail 49-48 with a minute to go.
The Hawkeyes, however, had two layups from Gustafson and Stewart for a 53-48 lead into the final quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
The Hawkeye's Makenzie Meyer gave Iowa a six-point 56-48 edge with a 3-pointer to kick off the final stanza.
Rutgers whittled the Iowa advantage down to as many as four on three occasions before Doyle went to the line for a pair of free throws and a 62-56 Hawkeye advantage.
The Scarlet Knights, however, outscored the Hawkeyes, 6-1, over the next three minutes and pulled within a point. Cryor went coast-to-coast and after Doyle missed a pair of attempts from the line for Iowa, Guirantes found Tekia Mack as RU trailed 63-62 with 1:41 to go.
Rutgers, however, would pull no closer. Iowa closed out the contest outscoring the Scarlet Knights 9-4, going 7-of-8 from the line.
UP NEXT
Rutgers heads to Penn State to close out the season series with the Lady Lions on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m.
KNIGHT NOTES
- After limiting Michigan State last Sunday to 62 points, Iowa took over the top spot in scoring in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes entered Wednesday's game averaging 81.0 points per game and was held to 72 points. Rutgers has held all 19 opponents to date under their scoring average.
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