STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The No. 14/18 Rutgers women's basketball team returned to the win column on Sunday afternoon with a 69-61 win over Penn State at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The Scarlet Knights, winners in 11 of their last 12 contests, improved to 16-4 overall and 8-1 in Big Ten play. The Lady Lions, meanwhile, dropped to 10-10 overall and 3-6 in league action.
Redshirt senior forward
Stasha Carey led all scorers with 18 points, while graduate student guard
Charise Wilson added in 14 in the win.
Penn State was led by Teniya Page with 18 points and seven assists and Amari Carter with 14 points.
FIRST QUARTER
Rutgers opened the contest with seven unanswered points before Penn State found its way onto the scoreboard. After the Lady Lions' first points of the game with 7:24 on the clock, Wilson ran the lane to put RU up 9-3.
From there, Penn State employed a 10-0 run to end the quarter up 13-9. The Scarlet Knights were held scoreless over the final 6:13 of the frame.
SECOND QUARTER
A jumper for Siyeh Frazier in the paint gave PSU its largest lead of the game at 16-9, but for the final 8:23 of the quarter the Lady Lions would be held without a field goal. Penn State stayed in front until the closing seconds of the stanza thanks to trips to the free throw line where they went 9-of-11.
Rutgers, meanwhile, continued to chip away at the lead and closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to retake the advantage. Carey's "and-one" with 24 seconds left until the intermission put the Scarlet Knights ahead 25-24 at the break.
Penn State shot an anemic 1-of-12 during the fame, while the Scarlet Knights hit 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from the field.
THIRD QUARTER
The Scarlet Knights continued momentum out of the break, outscoring Penn State 22-15 in the third quarter, with eight of the Lady Lion's points coming from the line.
PSU captured its first second half field goal from Carter with 2:46 on the clock, but by then RU extended its one-point halftime lead to 43-33 with 2:47 left.
Although shots started to drop for the Lady Lions in the closing moments, Rutgers led 47-39 entering the final quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
After a third quarter shooting slump, Penn State warmed up in the final quarter and hit 4-of-6 from the field to pull within a possession. A Page jumper saw the Lady Lions cut its deficit to two, 52-50, with 6:14 left, however, it would be the closest Penn State would get the rest of the afternoon.
Rutgers outscored PSU, 10-3, over the next two and a half minutes to take control of the lead for good and sophomore forward
Tekia Mack would tack on free throws to extend the Scarlet Knight advantage to double-digits in the closing moments.
UP NEXT
The Rutgers women's basketball team returns home to host 2018 WNIT Champion Indiana on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at the RAC.
KNIGHT NOTES
- Rutgers kept its 20th-straight opponent under its scoring average. Penn State entered Sunday's game averaging 69.3 points per game and were held to 61.
- Stasha Carey led RU in scoring for the seventh time this season and seventh time in her career. Additionally, she led the Scarlet Knights on the boards for the seventh time in the 2018-19 season and 17th time in her career.
- Ciani Cryor handed out a game-high eight assists in the win.
- Rutgers won the war on the glass, 37-32, and has outrebounded six of its nine Big Ten opponents to date.
- RU's 21 second chance points were the most since capturing 26 against Stony Brook in the second game of the 2018-19 season back on Nov. 9.
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- RU -
