Rutgers seeks 9th Big Ten win against Indiana
Winners of 11 of its last 12 contests, the Rutgers women's basketball team is welcoming Indiana, the 2018 Women’s NIT Champions, to Piscataway.
The No. 17 Scarlet Knights (16-4, 8-1) find themselves at the top of the Big Ten standings, one game ahead of both Maryland and Iowa.
Fifth-year senior forward Stasha Carey has led Rutgers in scoring in each of its last three games. She is entering Thursday night’s contest averaging 12 points and 6 rebounds per game over that timespan.
The Hoosiers (16-5, 5-4) don’t really have a signature win away from Bloomington, Ind.
Overall, Indiana's most impressive win was on Jan. 6. when it beat then-No. 15 Michigan State at home. The team is coming off a 56-76 loss to No. 11 Maryland at home on Sunday, a game in which the Hoosiers were outscored 20-5 in the second quarter and never recovered.
Indiana is lead by Ali Patberg. The 5-foot-1-inch guard is leading the Hoosiers in scoring at 15.7 points per game after sitting out last year due to NCAA transfer rules.
The Knights have held each of their 20 opponents under their scoring average this season. Indiana is coming to Piscataway averaging 71.4 points in its 21 games.
Besides Patberg, Rutgers will really have to keen in on stopping a couple of other the Hoosiers players. Indiana's Jaelynn Penn is coming in averaging 13.4 points per game. The Hoosiers' Brenna Wise is averaging 13 points per game, including shooting a scorching 45.7 percent from 3-point range.
Wise is also the leading rebounder for Indiana, grabbing seven rebounds per game.
The Knights and the Hoosiers met one time last year, with Indiana prevailing 64-58 last January in Bloomington. Both squads will look a lot different this time.
Patberg and Wise, 2 of the 3 leading scorers for the Hoosiers, were both ineligible to play in the game due to NCAA transfer rules. Rutgers also added and subtracted players since last year.
After going 1-1 on the road trip at Iowa and at Penn State, the Knights will play this one at home before it goes on the road again to play Minnesota on Sunday. The team then will have a whole week off to prepare for conference foe Maryland at the Rutgers Athletics Center (RAC) on Feb. 10.
