 "Photo: Eric Carter/Staff Photographer")
In a week that has seen the No. 9 Rutgers women's basketball team fight through a blizzard only to drop a heartbreaker to a ranked team, stay on the road for four days and manhandle another ranked opponent, the Scarlet Knights will now try to end their seven-day span on a high note.
RU looks to notch a victory against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday and take a winning streak into Hartford when it faces the Connecticut Huskies Thursday.
After head coach C. Vivian Stringer watched her team go flat against No. 7 Notre Dame on Sunday, she saw the 14-4 (5-1) Knights bounce back in a big way against No. 14 Boston College Wednesday.
Led by a stellar performance from senior guard Cappie Pondexter - who scored a game and season high of 27 points - the Knights never trailed and picked up a double-digit victory, 71-60.
The victory put Stringer in sole position of third place on the all-time wins list for NCAA women's basketball. She had been previously tied with retired LSU coach Sue Gunter at 708 wins.
"I learned a lot in the loss to Notre Dame," Pondexter said following her 11-of-17 shooting performance against Boston College. "I had to show my teammates and coaches what I could do."
Complemented by a 10-point, six-rebound performance by junior forward Michelle Campbell and a 13-point, six-rebound and four-assist outing by freshman guard Matee Ajavon (RU's leading scorer with 13.3 points per game), Pondexter and the Knights shot 44 percent from the field and tallied assists on half of their baskets (14 assists on 28 made shots).
Campbell is the team's second leading scorer, netting 12.3 per game, and the leading rebounder with 5.8 per contest.
The squad also hit seven three pointers, four of them by Pondexter. But the scariest thing for opposing coaches is that Pondexter is still not near the level where she is capable of being.
"Cappie is probably 65 percent," Stringer said. "I have too much respect for her to say that she is back to normal. When Cappie is conditioned, you will see it and know it."
The next team that will need to worry about Pondexter taking over the game is West Virginia, which comes to the Louis Brown Athletic Center Sunday for a noon showdown.
In a game that Rutgers sorely needed to win to better their postseason position, the Knights suffered a disappointing 80-71 loss to the Mountaineers on the road.
Rutgers, however, got revenge in the conference tournament, defeating WVU by a count of 61-51 to advance to the Big East Championship game.
This season, West Virginia is 12-6 overall (3-4) and has won only three of its last nine times out.
A pair of standout guards in sophomore Meg Bulger and senior Yolanda Paige will lead the Mountaineers into battle. Bulger is leading the league in scoring with 20.4 points per game to go along with 5.3 rebounds, while Paige is dishing out nearly 10 assists and 13 points per game thus far this season.
The Mountaineers will enter this weekend's contest coming off an 81-50 victory over Syracuse in which the WVU squad never trailed.
Against the Orange, senior forward Sherrell Sowho scored 20 points and freshman guard Chakhia Cole had a career-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. Paige also had an outstanding game, as she registered a double-double with 15 points and 13 assists.
In the very challenging and demanding Big East, this is a game the Knights need to win with much more difficult games following. If the Knights are victorious, their next game - against UConn - will be for first place in the league.
"In general, the entire women's game is going to be great this season," Pondexter said. "The Big East is going to be a lot of fun the next few months. ... The next few weeks are going to be tough for us, but it will be fun to see what we can do."
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