 "Photo: Anastasia Paranicas/Senior Photographer")
BC 36
Rutgers 54
One down, two to go.
That's what the No. 9 Rutgers women's basketball team thought after defeating No. 24 Boston College by a score of 54-36 at home last night.
"We still have two important games to get this thing under our belts," senior Rebecca Richman said in reference to the Big East regular season title. "We are thinking about a lot of things right now, but we know that we must stay focused."
Finishing the season with a perfect 13-0 record at the Louis Brown Athletic Center, the Scarlet Knights now stand at 21-5, 12-2 in Big East play.
Once again, it was a defensive showcase that propelled the Knights to the easy double-digit victory. For the 13th time this season, the Knights held an opponent to under 20 points for a half. Nine of those games occurred on the team's homecourt.
"It means a lot to us," senior guard Cappie Pondexter said of Rutgers undefeated home record. "We have dedicated ourselves to not lose at home. It really speaks a lot about our team."
Two road games are now all that stands in the way of RU capturing its first ever Big East regular season title.
This is a far cry from the 9-20 season that the current seniors had to endure during their freshman years.
"I told the seniors long ago that many will be called upon, but few will be chosen," head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "For those that stuck it out. Look what they did, no one is more deserving than this group."
Although the senior trio of Newton, Richman and Nikki Jett struggled offensively, an entire team defensive effort led the squad to victory.
Holding the Eagles to 36-percent shooting from the field, RU allowed just 36 points to BC last night. The point total is the second lowest scored by the Eagles in Big East play since Feb. 1998, when they scored 35 against Connecticut.
The Knights didn't allow a single BC player to register double digits in scoring, with Shamika Jackson leading the way with eight points. Coming into the game, junior forward Brooke Queenan was guiding the Eagles with 11 points-per-game, but she was held to only six points on 2-of-7 shooting.
"Their defense was good, but I think we just got frustrated with ourselves," Boston College head coach Cathy Inglese said.
Despite falling behind 7-1 in the opening minutes, RU went on to hold the Eagles to a season low 15 first-half points. Led by senior guard Chelsea Newton, who recorded five points in the first 10 minutes and 14 for the game, the Knights tallied nine straight points to take a 10-7 lead at 13:14 in the first and never trailed for the remainder of the contest.
After a lay-up by Eagles' forward Kathryn Ress cut the RU lead to 17-15 with 4:25 remaining in the first, the Knights didn't allow BC to score the next 10 minutes. During that span, Pondexter hit a pair of threes and forward Essence Carson hit two jumpers to extend RU's lead to 36-17.
Throughout the contest, the Knights' frontcourt was able to put points on the board despite being out-rebounded by 10 for the game, 38-28.
Junior forward Michelle Campbell bounced back from a tough first half - in which she recorded only two points and two rebounds - to finish with nine points and seven rebounds. Carson finished the game shooting 4-of-5 from the field for nine points and also pulled down six rebounds.
"We had 25 turnovers, with most coming from our frontline," Inglese said. "We can't be doing that. Their frontline outplayed us."
The Knights will now go on the road to complete the regular season. This Friday, the team will travel to the Steel City to take on Pittsburgh and then finish the season next Tuesday at Villanova.
"We are just taking this like we have all season," Newton said. "One game at a time is all we can do. We will go tomorrow and watch film on Pittsburgh and prepare for that."
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