 "Photo: Onnie Koski/Photography Editor")
The Rutgers women's basketball team was already able to right two wrongs this week, defeating two Big East rivals - Connecticut and Syracuse - for the first and second times this season.
The No. 10 Scarlet Knights will now look for a satisfying third helping of revenge when they host the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Louis Brown Athletic Center tomorrow at noon.
When the teams battled on Notre Dame's court on Jan. 23, the Irish capitalized on RU's appalling 17-percent second-half scoring to overcome an 11-point halftime deficit. The Knights managed only 16 second-half points after controlling the game at the outset.
Combined with a torrid 23-0 Irish run and a second-half explosion from All-American Jacqueline Batteast, the Irish were able to down then-No. 6 Rutgers by a count of 63-47 in stunning fashion.
"[Batteast] decided they weren't going to lose. She put the team on her back," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said after the game.
The Knights partially shot themselves in the foot in the contest as well, committing a dreadful 21 turnovers and making only five trips to the free throw line - a case of fundamental mistakes getting the best of a big team.
"You don't have an 11-point lead and have this happen, and it did," Stringer said. "I blame my leadership."
Another big difference that day was the issue of size.
The Knights are in no way a notoriously big team and Notre Dame held the clear advantage in that category, shutting down RU's inside game and forcing a higher number of outside shots than the Knights are accustomed to. The usually dangerous Michelle Campbell and Essence Carson were both held scoreless from the post, while Mariota Theodoris scored only four points on the day.
Seniors Chelsea Newton and Cappie Pondexter with 18 and 17 points led the RU offense, but only three other players scored in the game and no one else reached double figures.
On the other side, Batteast ended with 27 points and six rebounds for the Irish. Junior guard Megan Duffy contributed a career-high 11 assists, including eight in the second half.
Notre Dame brought a tough zone defense to the table, sending the Knights into repeated fits of bad shots and a rushed offense.
"Once we took care of the ball better and locked down on 'D', the game seemed to go our way," Batteast said. "For as bad as we played [in the first], we could have been blown out. We made the adjustments, and that was enough to win the game."
In its most recent outing, Notre Dame extended its winning streak to 10 games with a 54-47 win over the Boston College Eagles. The win made them the first team to clinch a first-round bye for the Big East conference championship coming up in early March.
Against BC, Batteast, who posted a game-high 15 points, again led the Irish. Duffy scored all 14 of her points in the second half in the victory. She is now ranked second in the nation in free-throw percentage (.916) and is currently the Big East leader in steals with 2.8 takeaways per game.
The Knights, on the other hand, boast a small hot streak of their own, being winners of their last four and six of their last seven games. After snagging victories against Seton Hall and Connecticut last week, RU sweated out Wednesday's 64-54 Syracuse contest as well - which was a lot closer than the score indicated. Pondexter netted 25 points in the win, while senior forward Rebecca Richman turned in her best overall performance of the season.
Pondexter's impressive showing bumped her up as the Knight's top scorer on the season, averaging 13.4 points-per-game. Ajavon follows closely with 12.9, while Campbell's 5.6 rebounds leads the team's modestly in rebounding.
For the Irish, Batteast and Duffy lead the scoring with 16.0 and 9.9 points-per-game. Batteast is also averaging 8.9 boards.
Rutgers will count on its formidable defensive game to counter the All-American's attack, as she is now the Big East's second-leading scorer and tenth-leading rebounder.
"Rutgers is one of the best defensive teams in the country," Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said.
Tomorrow's contest is pivotal for both teams in terms of Big East positioning, neither with much room to breathe or make mistakes. Rutgers finds itself just a half-game behind Notre Dame at the top of the conference standings and UConn follows closely with an identical 10-2 record with four regular season games remaining.
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