WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Rutgers women's basketball (8-3, 4-3) won its third consecutive game by defeating Purdue (6-11, 3-10) on the road, 75-57, at Mackey Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The Scarlet Knights shot 52 percent from the floor and forced 13 second-half turnovers to pull away with a 41-26 advantage over the final 20 minutes.
Arella Guirantes led all scorers with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting – her third 30-piece of the season – adding five rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots for her quadruple nickel.
Rutgers has won all three of its games since returning from a 35-day hiatus, including two-straight on the road, by an average of 16.7 points.
"We played tough and we played together, which is what was needed to win against a very good Purdue team," said head coach
C. Vivian Stringer. "
Diamond Johnson maintained her No. 5 national ranking in three-point shooting with a 4-of-8 mark from downtown. The freshman point guard finished with 19 points and a pair of career-highs with nine rebounds and six assists.
Tekia Mack added 12 points in the victory.
"We're getting focused on playing our best basketball of the season heading into March," said Guirantes. "We will hold ourselves to that standard."
The gold standard on both ends of the court in the first half was long-distance shooting. Both teams battled for open shots from beyond the arc and combined for an 11-of-20 mark on threes, and were separated by just three points at the break with RU up 34-31.
Sakima Walker,
Tyia Singleton and Guirantes bought buckets for a 6-0 run spanning four minutes near the halftime buzzer before a Boilermaker three with 31 seconds left broke the drought.
The RU defense came storming out of the intermission, causing eight turnovers in the opening five minutes of the second half, turning suffocating defense into a 13-0 run. Purdue got within six with 4:50 to play in the game on a 7-0 rally, but the Scarlet Knights stamped out the comeback attempt with a 10-0 spurt, punctuated by a Guirantes three-point play and another Guirantes jumper for the 70-54 lead at 2:44 left.
Rutgers outrebounded the Boilermakers, 30-22, with advantages in points in the paint (30-24) and points off turnovers (26-19).
The Scarlet Knights head home to host Minnesota on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at the RAC on Big Ten Network+.
NOTES
- Arella Guirantes picked up her third 30-point game of the season, and fifth of her career (all in Big Ten games).
- Rutgers came into the game ranked 13th in the nation with a .475 field goal percentage before shooting 52 percent at Purdue.
- Diamond Johnson has scored in double-digits in all 11 games and now ranks in the Top 5 nationally with her .500 three-point shooting (30-of-60).
- Diamond Johnson grabbed a career-high nine rebounds and passed out a career-best six assists.
- Arella Guirantes has 1,534 career points, the 13th most of any player to wear the Scarlet Knights uniform.
- Arella Guirantes has made 28 consecutive free throws. She made her final attempt against Manhattan then went a perfect 27-of-27 in her last five games. At .918, she is on pace to break the single-season record of .901 set by Tomora Young during the 1997-98 season.
- Arella Guirantes tied a career-high with five blocks.
- Rutgers is 6-0 when holding the lead at halftime.
- RU has outscored opponents in the paint in 10 of 11 games this season.
- The Scarlet Knights have outscored opponents in points off turnovers by an average of 14.3 this year.
- Rutgers leads the all-time series 8-5 overall and 7-3 as Big Ten regular season opponents. RU has won five straight, including two wins in the Big Ten Tournament in 2018 and 2019.
- Holding the Boilermakers under their scoring average of 65.5, Rutgers has accomplished that feat in 10 of 11 games this season and in 96 of its last 105 since the start of the 2017-18 season.
- C. Vivian Stringer rolled out the Starting Five of Diamond Johnson, Arella Guirantes, Mael Gilles, Tekia Mack and Tyia Singleton for the fourth time this season in consecutive games.
