It had been over seven years, 2559 days to be exact, since the last time the Rutgers women's basketball team defeated the Connecticut Huskies. The Scarlet Knights had dropped 12 consecutive contests to the Huskies after defeating UConn on February 10, 1998 by a score of 74-70.
Ten days after the Knights traveled to Harvard flying high only to be pushed aside by the Huskies 57-44, RU finally got the monkey off its back. The squad never trailed the Huskies en route to a 76-62 victory.
"It might be another day in the park for Connecticut and that is fine," head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "For me, personally, Connecticut has continued to frustrate me. That game was the team's game, they just refused to lose."
Similar to a scene from a movie, Stringer stood at center court following the victory and pumped her fist, waved to the crowd and celebrated with her players. A large reason for the celebration, Stringer knew how important this win was for her players and their psyche. Stringer believes that there will probably be another matchup between these two squads sometime in the Big East Tournament and felt that the players proved to themselves that they could beat the Huskies.
The players have similar feelings as their coach, knowing this is a big win, but only one more game. Senior guard Cappie Pondexter said that the team still has the same goals that they did prior to the season and they are what is most important.
"We know in our hearts that the season isn't over," Pondexter said. "Our goal from the beginning was to win the regular season Big East championship and we got a little closer with this win."
Balanced Attack
Scoring their third highest point total of the season, the Knights shot 48 percent from the field and had seven individuals tally points last night. Led by senior guard Chelsea Newton, who scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, RU had three players score in double figures.
Junior forward Michelle Campbell contributed 13 points and senior guard Cappie Pondexter tallied 18 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Stringer also got strong games by freshmen guards Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson. Ajavon scored nine points to go along with her five assists, while Carson nearly recorded a double-double, with eight points and eight rebounds. Carson also swatted away four UConn shots and had two steals.
Heart and Soul
After missing the first game against the Huskies, Newton came out on a mission last evening. Regularly called the "heart" of the team, Newton grabbed six rebounds, three assists, one block and two steals to go along with her team-high point total. Diving for loose balls, pulling down rebounds and making sure there was no letdown by any of her teammates throughout, Newton put forth the complete game.
"You could see it from the beginning," Pondexter said. "Her level of intensity is like no other."
With UConn on a bit of a run and the Knights struggling offensively, Newton took the game into her hands and hit possibly the biggest shot of the season. The clock read 7:37 and the score was at 52-47 after the Huskies had hit three-pointers on five straight trips down the court. Newton, though, sensed the game was in the balance and received a pass from Pondexter. The senior looked up the defender and then drained a three-pointer to seemingly deflate the Huskies, who would never inch that close for the remainder of the contest.
Quick and to the Points
Contrary to the last meeting between these two teams, it was Stringer's squad that jumped out to a huge lead early on and never looked back. Scoring the first 12 points of the game, the Knights were able to grab a double-digit lead at the 15:38 mark in the first half. Newton scored five points in the early run and freshman guard Matee Ajavon contributed four in the span.
"We knew we had to set the tempo early on and that's what we did tonight," Pondexter said. "We do that with defense and we did a good job early on."
Disrupting the Huskies offense early, RU held the Huskies scoreless for nearly six minutes and, despite UConn cutting the lead numerous times, the Knights held a double-digit lead for much of the game.
Sea of Red
With the contest nationally televised, the Knights fans put on quite a show of their own for all to see. Packing the Louis Brown Athletic Center with 8,014, the fourth largest in school history, the RU faithful made themselves noticed.
"To the fans who have endured, I thank you for coming. The RAC has been known to help the guys in the past," Stringer said. "Well, today it definitely helped us and the fans deserved this win."
By waving towels, holding up signs and making it an extremely hostile environment for the opponent, the fans propelled the Knights to 11-0 on the season inside the friendly confines of the team's home arena.
One person, though, who wasn't too thrilled with the fans was Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma, saying that the fans were yelling at his wife so he figured he would get them upset a bit by calling time outs at the end of the game.
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