PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers women's basketball (7-8, 0-3) returns home to Jersey Mike's Arena to host Minnesota (7-7, 0-2) on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. streaming live on B1G+. Since the first meeting in 1982, the home team has won all 10 matchups in the head-to-head series, including Rutgers going 5-0 at home in Big Ten play since 2015.

ON THE AIR

• Watch on B1G+ (Dom Savino & Tim Catalfamo)
• Listen on Fox Sports Radio New Jersey 93.5 FM/1450 AM (Ralph Bednarczyk & Mark Peterson)
• Listen on WRSU 88.7 FM

The 5 Things to Know

1. THE SCOUT

• All nine of Minnesota's student-athletes who played in 2021 returned this season with Katie Borowicz the only one not available to the Maroon and Gold due to injury. 
• University of Minnesota women's basketball head coach Lindsay Whalen had successful, emergency appendectomy surgery on Tuesday (Jan. 4) evening. She is recovering and will not coach the Gophers on Thursday at Rutgers. Carly Thibault-DuDonis will serve as Minnesota's acting head coach at Rutgers. 
• Sara Scalia leads the Gophers with a scoring average of 15.4 points per game this season. In addition to her scoring prowess, which ranks 13th in the Big Ten, Scalia is fourth in the Big Ten is 3-point percentage at 44.4 percent and is second in 3-point field goals made per game at 3.1 and has made the second most total threes at 44. 
• This season Minnesota as a team has the second-best three-point field goal percentage in the Big Ten at 37.4 which is also good enough for 11th best in the NCAA
• Kadi Sissoko is the Gophers leading rebounder this season at an average of 5.6 per game.

2. THE HEAD-TO-HEAD

 

3. THE MILLENNIALS

The Scarlet Knights are the only team in NCAA Division I to boast four current 1,000-point scorers on the 2021-22 roster: Osh Brown (1,608), Lasha Petree (1,493), Victoria Morris (1,453), and Jailyn Mason (1,010) combining for 5,564 points. Shug Dickson has 978 and is 22 points away from becoming the fifth member of the Rutgers Millennials.
 

4. ALL GLASS, NO BRAKES

Rutgers has outrebounded opponents in 13 of 15 games this season with an average margin of +7.7, which ranks third in the Big Ten. Osh Brown leads the effort with 9.1 per game, coming in fifth individually in the conference. 
 

5. HOME COOKIN'

Rutgers won three consecutive games to close out the 2021 portion of the schedule. All three wins came at home at Jersey Mike's Arena, where the Scarlet Knights improved to 7-2 on the year and 56-10 since the beginning of the 2017-18 season. In the all-time Minnesota series, Rutgers is 6-0 when the game is played in Piscataway, including a 5-0 mark in Big Ten play.

#Trending

• Sayawni Lassiter swiped three or more steals in a game for the seventh time this season – tying her career-high with five steals against Purdue. With 45 games played before transferring to Rutgers, Lassiter did not have a single 3+ steal game since becoming a Scarlet Knights, and now has seven this season.

• Chyna Cornwell scored a career-high nine points at Purdue, passing her best of eight set against Delaware State on Dec. 12, 2021.

• Shug Dickson's eight assists against Wagner tied her career-high from March of last season when she played for Mizzou against Alabama.

• Sayawni Lassier set a new career-high with seven assists in the CCSU win, passing her previous best of six with Florida State against Wake Forest on Feb. 3, 2019. She has passed out 15 assists over the last three games while in the starting lineup.

• RU has help opponents an average of 13.1 points under their season scoring averages over the past six contests.

• The Rutgers defense has held opponents under their scoring average in 32 of its last 34 games, and 119 of its last 129 dating back to 2017-18.

• Rutgers' 24 assists against Delaware State were the most in a game since 25 vs. Hampton on Dec. 18, 2020.

• Against No. 8 Maryland, Tyia Singleton recorded the second double-double (10pts, 12reb) of her career and the first since the 2020-21 regular-season finale against Ohio State. It was her fifth career game in double-figure scoring and fifth with double-digit rebounds.

• Tyia Singleton ranks third in the Big Ten with 18 total blocks.

• Osh Brown's 20-point, 20-rebound double-double vs. DePaul was Rutgers' first in a game since Betnijah Laney's 24-24 against UNC on Dec. 5, 2014 in a 2OT game (21-20 at the end of regulation). It fell two shy of Brown's career-high of 22 rebounds, set in the 2021 NCAA Tournament last season, a Ball State program record.

• Rutgers ranks 14th in the country in total steals (151) and 20th in total blocks (67).

• Rutgers passed out 21 assists on its 22 field goals in the St. Peter's victory, setting a school modern-era record (since 2001-02) for the highest percentage of field goals assisted (95%).

• In the St. Peter's win, Rutgers forced its most turnovers by an opponent (34) since 38 against Penn State during the 2014-15 season.

• The nation's fourth-best steals per game team last season, Rutgers grabbed 21 steals in the 2021-22 season opener, the most since 22 at Wisconsin in Game 2 last season on Dec. 11, 2020.
 
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