 "Photo: Matt Moss/Staff Photographer")
With two regular season games left to play in what has become an electrifying couple of months, the Rutgers women's basketball team will look to finally take a breather as they round the final turn and enter the home stretch - but not literally.
The No. 9 Scarlet Knights (21-5, 12-2) - coming off a 54-36 win against Boston College - have now won six consecutive games, all against Big East rivals. They will look to extend their streak to seven straight and 17-of-20 when they face off against the Pittsburgh Panthers tonight at 7 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.
It is the first of two road games that will close out the regular season for the Knights.
The next two contests, although both against unranked competition, will be crucial for RU in order to hold onto its share of the top slot of the Big East.
"We're taking it like we did any other game in the Big East," senior guard Chelsea Newton said said. "One game at time."
The Knights are led by Cappie Pondexter's 13.4 points-per-game, followed closely by Matee Ajavon's 12.3 average. Ajavon has been key in controlling the offense with her team-high 3.3 assists and Michelle Campbell has dominated the boards with 5.7 rebounds.
A pair of freshman are leading the scoring for the Panthers (12-13, 4-10 in the Big East). Center Marcedes Walker leads the way with 13.6 points and 9.0 rebounds-per-game and is coming off her second Big East Freshman of the Week selection after posting two double-doubles. Her counterpart, guard Katie Histed, is next in scoring with 11.4 ppg.
The two teams met over the winter holiday in what was an RU-dominated 68-41 contest. Ajavon sparked the slow-starting Knights to a 12-0 run midway through the first half on her way to a game-high 24 points.
Fellow freshman Essence Carson was the only other Knight to register double figures. RU held the Panthers to 5-28 shooting in a second half that included a 22-5 Rutgers run.
That victory extended the Knights' streak to nine straight over Pittsburgh, establishing the all-time series at a highly lopsided 18-2 in their favor.
The Panthers are a dismal 0-6 this season against ranked opponents. Their last contest saw them get painfully close to being doubled in scoring, as they fell to Connecticut by a score of 97-49.
Pittsburgh shot only 4-of-17 from three-point range as part of their 30-percent shooting effort from the field, while turning the ball over 18 times in the opening stanza alone.
In their last time out, the Knights held Boston College to a season-low 15 first-half points, marking the 17th time this year that RU has held an opponent to fewer than 20 at the half. No BC player reached double figures in the game and they committed an abominable 25 turnovers.
For Rutgers, Pondexter and Newton combined for 26 points to lead the scoring on a special evening, RU's Senior Night.
"It's the fact that we stayed together, we stayed here," Newton said. "We had all kinds of things thrown at us and so many people doubted us... for us it's a great thing, especially in our season year, to be going out there and doing those things."
The three departing seniors have witnessed the entire basketball spectrum, beginning with their freshman season in which the team posted a 9-20 record. Since that time, the Rutgers women's basketball program has compiled a 63-26 record and come full circle, culminating this season with some of the most exciting wins in Rutgers sports.
"This team had nine wins and 20 losses, and that's humiliating," head coach C. Vivian Stringer said of that time four years ago. "I think we learn from that. We learn what we don't like and we learn how to work ... if there's a word that particularly describes this team, and especially the seniors, it's perseverance."
The Knights will look to take that perseverance with them to Pittsburgh and Villanova before embarking on their much-anticipated post-season ride.
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