Thursday, February 13
East Lansing, Mich.
7:00 PM (ET)
Rutgers University
at
Michigan State
Game 24: Women's Hoops at Michigan State
Feb 12 | Women's Basketball
Scarlet Knights seek to avenge the Spartans' 66-55 win at the RAC on Jan. 20
EAST LANSING, Mich. (Feb. 12, 2020) - Rutgers women's basketball (17-6, 7-5) flies to Michigan State (11-12, 4-8) for a Big Ten road game on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. ET inside the Breslin Center.
The Scarlet Knights are finishing a stretch of three out of four games away from Piscataway. Rutgers seeks to avenge the Spartans' 66-55 win at the RAC on Jan. 20. With six games remaining in the regular season and in fifth place in the Big Ten, the Scarlet Knights will be attempting to move into the coveted Top 4 to receive a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Spots 5 and 6 are also advantageous due to a single bye and a date with an opponent who has played the day before.
STATE OF SUCCESS: Boosted by a 15-2 start to the season - Rutgers' best to open a campaign since the 1990-91 squad started 16-1 - the Scarlet Knights have clinched their third straight winning regular season and 16th in the last 17 years under Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer.
B1G TIME: C. Vivian Stringer, the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten play with 219 victories, leads the Scarlet Knights through the conference slate one year after RU's most successful season in the league since joining in '14-15. Rutgers' 13 regular season Big Ten wins, the No. 3 B1G Tournament seed and the tourney semis finish in '18-19 were all program bests.
OK, KK!: Senior point guard Khadaizha "KK" Sanders is nine assists away from becoming the 10th player in Rutgers women's basketball history to reach the 400 career assists mark.
AG1K: Redshirt junior guard Arella Guirantes is the third leading scorer in the Big Ten at 19.4 points per game (22nd nationally). Guirantes became the 38th player in Rutgers history to score her 1,000th career point in a Scarlet Knight uniform. She scored 288 at Texas Tech as a freshman, 386 as a redshirt sophomore at Rutgers, and 427 this season "On the Banks." She has been honored in six Big Ten weekly awards this year, twice as the Big Ten Player of the Week and four times on the weekly honor roll.
PLAYING B1G: Rutgers has owned the paint this season, outscoring opponents by an average of 13.0 points per game down low. The Scarlet Knights are 17-3 this season when outscoring opponents in the paint. RU has outrebounded 12 of its last 17 opponents and ranks third in the B1G in average rebounding margin at +4.3.
RESUME BUILDING: Rutgers has received votes in 12 of 15 AP Top 25 Polls this season. RU is currently listed No. 47 in the RPI rankings with victories over No. 39 Purdue and No. 50 Virginia, with losses to No. 15 Indiana, No. 24 LSU, No. 34 Michigan and a double-overtime setback at No. 57 Minnesota.
D-FENCE: The Scarlet Knights' 17 wins have been fueled by stifling defense. RU ranks No. 9 in the nation in field goal percentage defense at .339 and No. 19 in the nation in scoring defense at 55.3 points allowed per game. RU leads the Big Ten in points allowed and field goal percentage defense, and has held 22 of 23 opponents under their scoring averages, while doing the same in 52 of its last 55 dating back to last season.
NEW-LOOK KNIGHTS: Rutgers women's basketball entered the 2019-20 season without four of the top five leaders in games started from last winter, returning 45% of its points and 35% rebounds. The eight returning Scarlet Knights (seven letterwinners) make up 29 percent of last year's games started. The projected starting lineup with last year's number of starts in parantheses: Khadaizha Sanders (0 – injury), Arella Guirantes (21), Tekia Mack (2), Zipporah Broughton (3) and Jordan Wallace (0).
FUTURE IS BRIGHT: C. Vivian Stringer and her staff have secured the No. 8 nationally ranked recruiting class for 2020 according to ESPN, led by the signing of No. 6 ranked prospect Diamond Johnson out of Neumann Goretti in Philadelphia. Blue Star Basketball ranks the class No. 5 in the nation.
• Tekia Mack is Rutgers' leading passer over the past five games with 19 assists (3.8 per game), including a career-high 7 vs. Penn State.
• After averaging 12.6 minutes and 3.1 points per game over her first 16 contests, Zipporah Broughton has averaged 29.3 minutes over the past five games and averaged 7.0 points per contest over that span.
• RU's +23 rebounding (42-19) margin against Penn State was the program's highest in a B1G game since joining the conference in 2014-15.
• Penn State's 39 points was Rutgers' second lowest allowed since joining the Big Ten. It was the lowest allowed since Illinois' 37 in 2018.
• Illinois' .264 shooting on Jan. 30 was RU's lowest field goal percentage allowed in a Big Ten game since Michigan managed a mark of .262 on 2/8/15.
• Rutgers has swiped double-digit steals in six of the last nine games and are 10-2 this season in games with 10 or more steals.
• KK Sanders is 9 assists away from becoming the 10th player in RU history with 400.
• At least two players have scored in double-figures in 22 of 23 games.
• RU is 15-2 when three or more score in double-digits.
• Rutgers is 17-3 when scoring more points in the paint and more points off turnovers.
• The Scarlet Knights have held 52 of its last 55 opponents under their scoring average. Since the beginning of 2017-18, RU has held 81 of its last 87 opponents under their scoring average.
Rutgers, as a team or individually, is ranked in the Top 25 in the nation in six statistical categories through games played on Feb. 11, including a pair of Top 20 marks in key defensive figures..
• Team: FG% defense (9th - .339)
• Team: Scoring defense (19th - 55.3)
• Arella Guirantes: Points/gm (22nd - 19.4)
• Arella Guirantes: FT made (22nd - 109)
• Arella Guirantes: FT attempts (23rd - 142)
• Arella Guirantes: FG attemtps (23rd - 362)
Four of the final five games of the regular season will be played at home at the RAC, starting with Sunday, Feb. 16 at noon against Michigan in the Pink Game presented by RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Center.
Follow Rutgers women's basketball on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Scarlet Knights are finishing a stretch of three out of four games away from Piscataway. Rutgers seeks to avenge the Spartans' 66-55 win at the RAC on Jan. 20. With six games remaining in the regular season and in fifth place in the Big Ten, the Scarlet Knights will be attempting to move into the coveted Top 4 to receive a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Spots 5 and 6 are also advantageous due to a single bye and a date with an opponent who has played the day before.
| ON THE AIR |
- Watch on BTN+
- Listen on WRSU 88.7 FM (Play-by-play: Corey Jason and Douglas Willig)
| THE SCOUT |
- The Spartans (11-12, 4-8) have dipped below .500 by dropping each of their last five contests since beating Rutgers on Jan. 20 in Piscataway.
- Four of those losses have come against ranked teams - No. 22 Northwestern (76-48), No. 19 Iowa (74-57), No. 17 Maryland (94-53) and again to No. 21 Northwestern (85-55).
- Sophomore guard Nia Clouden has scored in double-figures in 20 games while averaging 14.5 points, 3.4 assists and 1.9 steals per contest. Her .815 free throw percentage is second in the Big Ten.
- Taryn McCutchen joins Clouden in double-figure average scoring at 10.7 per game.
- On both ends of the court, Michigan State lives and dies by the three-point field goal. They rank second in the Big Ten in attempts at 515, while making 164 for fourth in the B1G. On defense, the allow a .288 mark from beyond the arc, good for fourth in the conference.
| HEAD-TO-HEAD |
| KNIGHT NOTES |
B1G TIME: C. Vivian Stringer, the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten play with 219 victories, leads the Scarlet Knights through the conference slate one year after RU's most successful season in the league since joining in '14-15. Rutgers' 13 regular season Big Ten wins, the No. 3 B1G Tournament seed and the tourney semis finish in '18-19 were all program bests.
OK, KK!: Senior point guard Khadaizha "KK" Sanders is nine assists away from becoming the 10th player in Rutgers women's basketball history to reach the 400 career assists mark.
AG1K: Redshirt junior guard Arella Guirantes is the third leading scorer in the Big Ten at 19.4 points per game (22nd nationally). Guirantes became the 38th player in Rutgers history to score her 1,000th career point in a Scarlet Knight uniform. She scored 288 at Texas Tech as a freshman, 386 as a redshirt sophomore at Rutgers, and 427 this season "On the Banks." She has been honored in six Big Ten weekly awards this year, twice as the Big Ten Player of the Week and four times on the weekly honor roll.
PLAYING B1G: Rutgers has owned the paint this season, outscoring opponents by an average of 13.0 points per game down low. The Scarlet Knights are 17-3 this season when outscoring opponents in the paint. RU has outrebounded 12 of its last 17 opponents and ranks third in the B1G in average rebounding margin at +4.3.
RESUME BUILDING: Rutgers has received votes in 12 of 15 AP Top 25 Polls this season. RU is currently listed No. 47 in the RPI rankings with victories over No. 39 Purdue and No. 50 Virginia, with losses to No. 15 Indiana, No. 24 LSU, No. 34 Michigan and a double-overtime setback at No. 57 Minnesota.
D-FENCE: The Scarlet Knights' 17 wins have been fueled by stifling defense. RU ranks No. 9 in the nation in field goal percentage defense at .339 and No. 19 in the nation in scoring defense at 55.3 points allowed per game. RU leads the Big Ten in points allowed and field goal percentage defense, and has held 22 of 23 opponents under their scoring averages, while doing the same in 52 of its last 55 dating back to last season.
NEW-LOOK KNIGHTS: Rutgers women's basketball entered the 2019-20 season without four of the top five leaders in games started from last winter, returning 45% of its points and 35% rebounds. The eight returning Scarlet Knights (seven letterwinners) make up 29 percent of last year's games started. The projected starting lineup with last year's number of starts in parantheses: Khadaizha Sanders (0 – injury), Arella Guirantes (21), Tekia Mack (2), Zipporah Broughton (3) and Jordan Wallace (0).
FUTURE IS BRIGHT: C. Vivian Stringer and her staff have secured the No. 8 nationally ranked recruiting class for 2020 according to ESPN, led by the signing of No. 6 ranked prospect Diamond Johnson out of Neumann Goretti in Philadelphia. Blue Star Basketball ranks the class No. 5 in the nation.
| TRENDING |
• After averaging 12.6 minutes and 3.1 points per game over her first 16 contests, Zipporah Broughton has averaged 29.3 minutes over the past five games and averaged 7.0 points per contest over that span.
• RU's +23 rebounding (42-19) margin against Penn State was the program's highest in a B1G game since joining the conference in 2014-15.
• Penn State's 39 points was Rutgers' second lowest allowed since joining the Big Ten. It was the lowest allowed since Illinois' 37 in 2018.
• Illinois' .264 shooting on Jan. 30 was RU's lowest field goal percentage allowed in a Big Ten game since Michigan managed a mark of .262 on 2/8/15.
• Rutgers has swiped double-digit steals in six of the last nine games and are 10-2 this season in games with 10 or more steals.
• KK Sanders is 9 assists away from becoming the 10th player in RU history with 400.
• At least two players have scored in double-figures in 22 of 23 games.
• RU is 15-2 when three or more score in double-digits.
• Rutgers is 17-3 when scoring more points in the paint and more points off turnovers.
• The Scarlet Knights have held 52 of its last 55 opponents under their scoring average. Since the beginning of 2017-18, RU has held 81 of its last 87 opponents under their scoring average.
| NATIONAL RANKS |
• Team: FG% defense (9th - .339)
• Team: Scoring defense (19th - 55.3)
• Arella Guirantes: Points/gm (22nd - 19.4)
• Arella Guirantes: FT made (22nd - 109)
• Arella Guirantes: FT attempts (23rd - 142)
• Arella Guirantes: FG attemtps (23rd - 362)
| UP NEXT |
Follow Rutgers women's basketball on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- RU -
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F/G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's BasketballWomen’s Basketball Post Game Press Conference - Maryland
Friday, January 09
Women’s Basketball Post Game Press Conference - Wisconsin
Thursday, January 01
Women’s Basketball Post Game Press Conference - Lafayette
Saturday, December 20
Women’s Basketball Post Game Press Conference - Saint Peter’s
Sunday, November 30
