INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (March 5, 2020) – Fifth-seeded Rutgers women's basketball (22-8) defeated No. 12 seed Wisconsin (12-18) in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament presented by SoFi, 63-55, on Thursday afternoon inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The Scarlet Knights have now advanced to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals in five of their six appearances, and did so by outscoring the Badgers 21-10 in the fourth quarter after trailing by three with 10 to play. Despite a 36-28 rebounding deficit and Wisconsin's .449 to .417 shooting advantage, Rutgers had an edge in all major phases of the game with leads in points off turnovers, in the paint, second chance, fast break and off the bench.
"Wisconsin was well prepared, and it was a scary situation simply because when you play a team three times, and they've had very close games to the top teams within the Big Ten, so we were nervous," said head coach
C. Vivian Stringer. "And what happened at the beginning is that we weren't nearly as impressive as we needed to be, but we did know that we had to step it up, which is extremely taxing, but the team willed themselves to win, and it worked out for us."
Rutgers worked the ball control battle heavily in its favor with just nine turnovers compared to the 20 they forced from the Badgers.
Rutgers advances to play No. 4 seed and No. 20/22 nationally ranked Indiana in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 6 at approximately 2:25 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
- Arella Guirantes scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting with three 3-pointers, four steals, two assists and two blocked shots. With her 4-of-4 mark from the free throw line, Guirantes sets a new school record for made free throws in a season with 156 – surpassing the previous record of 155 set by Sue Wick during her National Player of the Year season in 1987-88.
- Danielle Migliore brought the heat off the bench with three made 3-pointers for her nine points to go with a career-high four steals.
- Tekia Mack added nine with four boards, three assists and three steals.
- Jordan Wallace chipped in nine points, including five in the breakout fourth quarter.
- Nine different players scored a point for the Scarlet Knights in the Big Ten Tournament game.
The Badgers' hot shooting forced Rutgers to come from behind after three quarters of play, and one sequence in the fourth quarter captured the Scarlet Knights' willingness to battle until the end. Near the beginning of the fourth quarter, one wildly athletic play shifted the dynamic of the game. Tekia Mack came up with the steal to start the fast break, which was finished when Khadaizha Sanders passed behind the back to Mack for the finish. The bucket started a stretch of 5-of-6 from the floor and a 14-0 run for RU to take a double-digit lead.
- Jordan Wallace made her first two shots from the floor to keep pace with the Badgers' hot shooting to start the game. Wisconsin opened 5-of-9 for a 10-8 lead. Following a 6:30 stretch without a field goal, Guirantes buried a triple with five seconds left in the opening quarter to knot the score at 13-13.
- With Wisconsin sticking around, Rutgers counted on Danielle Migliore's three-point shooting and some points off turnovers to keep its lead. Migliore drained two straight from beyond the arc, and then came up with a steal to feed Guirantes on the fast break for the 21-17 lead with 6:35 ahead of halftime. Wisconsin made 4-of-5 to take the lead briefly at 26-25 before Tekia Mack finished a three-point play the hard way with 39 seconds left.
- Guirantes took over in the third with three buckets before the media timeout, including a step-back three to bring RU within one points at 38-37 midway through the period. RU then went scoreless for nearly three minutes before Guirantes finished strong with a pullup jumper and a buzzer-beating step-back to send Wisconsin to the fourth up 45-42.
- One wildly athletic play shifted the dynamic of the game. Mack came up with the steal to start the fast break, which was finished when Sanders passed behind the back to Mack for the finish. The bucket started a stretch of 5-of-6 from the floor for RU for a double-digit lead, including Migliore's third triple and a hoop-and-harm by Mack for a 58-47 advantage. Wisconsin made a few shots to chip away and cut it to five, but the comeback attempt was snuffed out by Sanders' jumper with 36 seconds left.
- Rutgers has advanced to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals in five of its six tournaments and move to 5-5 all-time since joining the conference for the 2015 tournament.
- Rutgers now owns five victories this season when trailing heading into the fourth quarter.
- RU went 3-0 against Wisconsin this season, the second three-game sweep of a Big Ten opponent since joining the league. RU beat Indiana twice in the 2014-15 regular season before a victory in the Big Ten Tournament second round.
- RU outscored Wisconsin 63-31 in the three fourth quarters combined throughout the 2019-20 season.
- Guirantes' 27 points is the most scored by a Rutgers player in the Big Ten Tournament (since 2015) - surpassing Tyler Scaife's 26 against Ohio State on March 4, 2016.
- Guirantes now has 14 20-or-more point performances this season, and 18 for her career.
- Guirantes now has 156 made free throws this season, a new school record, surpassing the 155 by RU Hall of Famer Sue Wicks during her National Player of the Year season in 1987-88.
- RU outscored Wisconsin 30-22 in points in the paint, marking the 25th time in 30 games Rutgers has outscored opponents in the stripe and moving to 20-5 in those contests.
- RU outscored Wisconsin 11-3 in fast break points, moving to 17-1 this season when they accomplish that feat.
- RU outscored Wisconsin 24-12 in points off turnovers, marking the 25th time in 30 games Rutgers has outscored opponents off miscues and moving to 21-4 in those contests.
- Rutgers are now 14-2 when they have 10 or more steals. The Scarlet Knights had 12 to the Badgers' four.
- Rutgers held Wisconsin 10 points under their scoring average of 64.9, marking the 28th time in 30 games this season RU has held opponents under their scoring median.
- RU is scoring 66.7 points per game, as it stands the 5th most offensively productive C. Vivian Stringer team "On the Banks" behind four NCAA Tournament teams ('99, '15, '98 & '03).
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