Rutgers Women's Basketball narrowly avoids upset to Siena
Rutgers Women’s Basketball returned home after its first road trip of the year, and nearly got caught in an upset bid in the process.
The Scarlet Knights (5-2) had to scratch and claw back in front against Siena, after a dominant start to the game. The Saints (0-6) were able to take the lead back in the third quarter and held it for most of the third quarter, before Rutgers took the lead back for good and ultimately won 66-61.
Faith Blackstone made her season debut as a Scarlet Knight in late in the third quarter, and helped put Rutgers ahead by spurring a 9-2 run to open the fourth. She was listed as questionable coming into the game, and played 12 minutes.
“She just got medically cleared to play this morning, so we weren’t sure until late this afternoon if she actually was gonna play or not,” Head coach Coquese Washington said after the game. “The plan was we would play her like any other player, based on situation and circumstance. The situation and circumstance called was their play in zone. And so we know that Faith can knock down some outside shots , so we wanted to give her a chance to play against the zone.”
Siena came close, but fell just short in getting its first win of the year, though they played the Scarlet Knights – their first high-major opponent of the season – tough after a bad start. The Saints ranked 302 coming into the game according to Bart Torvik’s metrics, and had lost to Colgate, UMass, Army, Dartmouth, and Albany coming into the game.
Nene Ndiaye had another strong scoring performance, leading all scorers with another career-high 26 points with seven rebounds. Zachara Perkins continued her own solid scoring stretch with 16 points and seven rebounds of her own. Imani Lester scored nine points in the first quarter but was shut out afterwards, though she did also grab nine rebounds.
In her homecoming, Hillsborough (N.J.) alum Francesca Schiro reached double-figures for the sixth straight game with 13 points, playing her second game at Jersey Mike’s Arena after leading the Raiders to a state championship in March. Valencia Fontenelle-Posson led Siena with 15 points off the bench.
Hot and cold
Rutgers looked like two completely different teams in a Jekyll and Hyde-like first-half performance.
On one hand, in the first quarter, the Scarlet Knights stretched out leads of 16-2 and 25-9, looking dominant in the process. Siena struggled at times to even get the ball up the floor, and Rutgers was able to get to the basket at will.
On the other, the Saints were able to fight back into this game in the second quarter.
Rutgers sandwiched those dominant runs in between stretches of scoreless play, eerily similar to Thursday’s offensive struggles against Auburn.
From there, in the rest of the quarter, the Saints scored the final five points and set the stage for a dominant second quarter.
Offensive woes (again)
Once again much like Thursday’s loss, Rutgers’ offense went ice-cold in the second quarter.
It went a stretch of 12 straight misses – after missing 17 straight shots from the floor Thursday – and did not score for nearly seven minutes.
The Scarlet Knights had their chances, as they were not turning the ball over in bunches, but shots were just not falling. Rutgers finished the game shooting 20-for-60 (33 percent) from the floor, and 5-for-14 from the three-point line. On a positive note, they were able to improve their numbers from the line, making 21 of 26 attempts.
Against a defense that had given up at least 65 points in all but one game so far, Rutgers was unable to string together any momentum consistently after the first quarter.
“I think we just tried to persevere and tried to execute through the offense,” Washington said on how the team got past the struggles. “We got some good looks during that stretch that didn’t just go down. The thing that we have to do during those stretches is get to the free throw line to break that drought, and that’s something we didn’t do: get to the free throw line, enough during that stretch.”
One big reason for the shooting struggles has been Kaylah Ivey‘s inconsistency shooting, though she did dish out six assists on Monday. She has shot 3-for-23 from the floor in her last two games, and is now shooting 25-for-90 (27.8 percent) on the year. Her head coach has not lost confidence in her, though.
“She’s a really unselfish player,” said Washington. “And she’s a true leader for this team. She’s a true leader on the floor. So she’s really always looking to make sure that everybody else is involved and that the offense is running efficiently and effectively. So she’s not worried about her shots or anything like that. She’s more worried about making sure the team is running and functioning well.”
Locking down late
With the insertion of Blackstone into the game in the fourth quarter, and the defensive play late, the Scarlet Knights were able to outscore the Saints 22-16 in the fourth quarter. Siena shot 7-for-14 in the frame but committed five turnovers. They ended with 20 for the game, compared to 15 for the home team.
The Scarlet Knights finally were able to hit some shots late as well, with Perkins nailing a much-needed three-pointer to give Rutgers a two-possession lead and get some breathing room.
“I’ve just relied on my teammates and knowing that my teammates are going to get me the ball,” Perkins said on another double-figure performance. “I think my teammates and my coaches have the confidence in me and the confidence in myself to score the ball. I think that’s been the biggest thing and just staying with that and staying consistent.”
Some late free-throw shooting also helped the Scarlet Knights close out the game. As a unit, Rutgers shot 22-for-28 from the charity stripe, continuing an improved figure game-by-game, both in volume and efficiency.
The Scarlet Knights have now played five games decided by ten points or less, and have moved to 4-1 in those games. They now take that momentum into two more games against low-major opponents until the schedule’s toughest tests start.
Up next
Rutgers Women’s Basketball takes the court again on Black Friday later this week, as the Scarlet Knights will host Northeastern – where assistant coach James Spinelli spent the previous two seasons as an assistant – at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
That game tips off at 7 pm and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.
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