INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – No. 19/23 and third-seeded Rutgers women's basketball (14-4) lost to No. 6 seed Iowa (17-8) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, 73-62, on Thursday evening at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
 
Freshman guard Diamond Johnson tied her career high with 26 points and added eight rebounds and a career-high six steals in her first postseason game with the Scarlet Knights, but a first-half 21-point deficit was too much to overcome in the conference tournament. Arella Guirantes added 20 points for Rutgers, who shot 39 percent compared to the Hawkeyes' 54 percent from the field.
 
Iowa used a 10-0 run near the end of the first, with Rutgers struggling from the floor, to take a 18-9 lead after 10 minutes. The Hawkeyes led by as many as 21 – Rutgers' largest deficit of the entire season – but Johnson's shooting made the halftime discrepancy a little more manageable. Guirantes started the 7-0 run to end the half, while Johnson hit a three and another jumper in the final two minutes. Iowa was scoreless for the final 3:35, but led 39-25 at the break.
 
Guirantes provided a third quarter spark, scoring 10 of her 20 in the period, but Iowa seemed to have an answer for each bucket and maintained its double-digit lead going into the fourth.
 
Johnson swiped her career-best sixth steal of the game with 3:31 left in the game, leading to an easy deuce and capping a 7-0 Scarlet Knight rally to cut the deficit to eight points at 69-61. But RU would manage just one free throw point the rest of the way as Iowa advanced to the semifinals.
 
The Scarlet Knights finished third in the Big Ten to tie for its highest place since joining the conference in 2014-15. They will await their seeding in the NCAA Tournament, airing live on the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
 
NOTES

• Diamond Johnson matched her career-high with 26 points and set a new career high with six steals, all in her first postseason game.
• It was Diamond Johnson's seventh 20+ point game of the season, and Rutgers first loss in one of those games (6-1).
• Arella Guirantes scored 20+ for the 11th time this season, and 29^th time in her career.
• Arella Guirantes has 1,666 career points, the 10^th most of any player to wear the Scarlet Knights uniform.
• RU has outscored opponents in the paint in 17 of 18 games this season.
• Iowa leads the all-time series, 9-3, including a 2-0 mark in the Big Ten Tournament.
• Holding Iowa – the nation's second leading scoring offense - under their scoring average of 87.2, Rutgers has accomplished that feat in 17 of 18 games this season and in 104 of its last 113 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 11th time this season in consecutive games.

 
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