Rutgers Women's Basketball falls in heartbreaker at No. 24 Michigan State

With 15.8 seconds to play in a post-Christmas showdown at the Breslin Center and trailing by three points, Rutgers Women’s Basketball’s first Big Ten win, first road win, and first ranked win of the year hung in the balance after forward Imani Lester drew a reach-in foul on a post entry. The ensuing inbounds pass floated in the air.

And No. 24 Michigan State guard Kennedy Blair picked it off. The Spartans (12-1, 1-1) were able to breathe a sigh of relief with an upset bid avoided.

The Scarlet Knights (8-5, 0-2) came up just short and fell 70-64 in the final seconds, in a game where neither team found any consistent footing for much of the game on offense. Michigan State came away victorious, depriving Rutgers of its first ranked victory in nearly five years.

In the road effort, the Scarlet Knights were once again led by guard Nene Ndiaye, who fouled out with four minutes to play after leading the team with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, to go along with six rebounds. Faith Blackstone finished as the runner-up with 15 points and tied the team lead with seven boards, as part of a strong rebounding effort. Lester (11 points) and Kaylah Ivey (10 points) — who also dished out her 500th career assist — were the two other Rutgers scorers in double figures.

Blair stuffed the stat sheet for the Spartans, with the game-sealing interception serving as her game-high fourth steal of the game, while also adding on 12 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Rashunda Jones led the team with 14 points — nine coming in the fourth quarter, and four in the last 30 seconds — as Ines Sotelo added 12 points and five rebounds.

The Scarlet Knights were ultimately put at a disadvantage after committing a season-high 25 turnovers, compounded by a 22-for-53 (42 percent) mark from the floor, and 4-for-20 from beyond the three-point line. Michigan State struggled even more to shoot the ball, with a 35 percent mark from the floor, and just 3-for-24 from the arc, especially surprising considering the Spartans’ top-20 ranking in nearly every scoring and shooting metric nationally.

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Offensively challenged opening

Even though the final score may say otherwise, neither team got going offensively to open the game. The two teams combined for three points in the opening four minutes, coming from a layup by Grace VanSlooten and a free throw by Isaline Alexander.

The Scarlet Knights showed some of their familiar struggles to execute offensively, missing their first four shots from the floor and turning the ball over four times to open the game. Even after those struggles, they rebounded — led by Ndiaye’s eight points in the opening frame — to tie the game at 15 apiece after a quarter.

That continued for much of the afternoon, as both teams could not consistently knock down shots to gain an edge, even after the Spartans took a game-high 11-point lead in the second quarter after working a 9-0 run in the opening four minutes. From there, Rutgers got back in the game, holding Michigan State to one field goal over the next nearly three minutes. The Scarlet Knights went into the locker room trailing by two scores after managing to weather the storm.

Turnovers loom large again

Speaking of consistency — in the negative sense — Rutgers also continued its ball security woes that have plagued not just this season, but Coquese Washington’s tenure as head coach.

Not only were the 25 turnovers the most since a 92-42 loss to No. 4 USC last season, Rutgers also set a season-high mark for the rate of turnovers — especially alarming considering the fast pace the Scarlet Knights play at. The 34.2 percent turnover rate marked the highest this year, and the highest since that same game against the Trojans. That included the final sequence trailing by a score.

Rutgers has now turned the ball over on at least a quarter of its possessions five times in 13 games this season, and now sits at 236th nationally with a 25.4 percent turnover rate.

The giveaways came back to bite the Scarlet Knights as well, as Michigan State converted for 20 points off turnovers, compared to nine points off 12 forced turnovers by Rutgers on the other side.

After two straight years in the 300s nationally in turnover rate to start Washington’s tenure, the Scarlet Knights jumped to a respectable 21.2 percent (105th nationally) last season, but it appears that momentum has been wiped out.

It isn’t just one issue in terms of how Rutgers is giving the ball away, either. The Scarlet Knights have committed offensive fouls, traveled, given away live-ball turnovers, and more at a seemingly even rate. That only raises concerns on how to actually fix those issues.

The good: Defense and the rim

Even with the aforementioned execution issues on the offensive end, Rutgers was able to stay in the game for the majority of the afternoon thanks to a strong effort defensively, and on both ends at the basket.

The Scarlet Knights came away ahead with a 44-36 advantage in rebounding the ball, mostly on the defensive side. They also scored 32 points in the paint, holding their own with an efficient 14-for-19 mark on layups, compared to the Spartans’ 17-for-32 clip at the basket. Rutgers also got to the free-throw line plenty, continuing its season-long trend, now ranking 21st nationally in free-throw rate at 39 percent, according to Bart Torvik. It converted on 16 of 20 attempts at the line, the second-best percentage of the year.

On defense, the Scarlet Knights shut down Michigan State’s transition- and perimeter-heavy attack, registering the worst shooting performance of the season for the Spartans in terms of volume (three made threes) and efficiency (12.5 percent). Rutgers even got an advantage in transition points, especially impressive considering the turnovers setting up the Spartans on offense, but the defense certainly played well enough to come away victorious.

Up next

Rutgers Women’s Basketball will return home to continue Big Ten play once the calendar flips to 2026.

The Scarlet Knights will host Wisconsin on New Year’s Day at Jersey Mike’s Arena. That game will tip off at 2 pm and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.