(Note: Guru correspondent Stephen K. Lee filed the following story. Additionally, Kathleen Radebaugh's City Series coverage of La Salle-Villanova is over at womhoops guru because of events on this blog that overtook that coverage. -- Think of the two blog sites in ESPN terms as Guru and Guru2)
By Stephen K. Lee
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – On a night when the Rutgers women’s basketball team celebrated last season’s accomplishments with a new banner in the rafters and NCAA Final Four rings given to the Scarlet Knights before their season opener against Stanford, a familiar scene at the end of the game decided the winner.
Much like last season’s postseason game against Duke at the Greensboro Regionals, the No. 3 Scarlet Knights had to watch the opposing team’s star player attempt free throws with one tenth of a second remaining on the clock.
But this time, the star player on the opposing team (Stanford’s all-America Candace Wiggins) made the free throws to give the No. 7 Cardinal (2-0) a 60-58 win.
Following a Rutgers missed shot with the clock ticking down, Wiggins, an Associated Press preseason all-American, got the ball and eased up the court with most of the Knights (0-1) falling back as the score was tied 58-58.
The only Rutgers player who stayed on Wiggins was sophomore guard Epiphanny Prince who took a swipe that was whistled a foul with that fraction of a second remaining.
After the game, Wiggins, who played with the U.S. national team last summer, described the foul as one that could’ve gone either way.
“I think what happened was (Prince) kind of just like swiped at me,” Wiggins said. “I don’t know if there was contact or not, but just the actual motion of swipe and who’s driving hard is just going to look like a foul. Sometimes that just happens.”
“It was a swipe, but I was just driving by. It happens a lot in the game, but whether the ref calls it or not, it’s just happened.”
Wiggins, who finished with a team-high 19 points, also said that the image of former Duke star Lindsey Harding missing her free throws against Rutgers in last year’s NCAA tournament ran through her mind when she reached the free throw line.
“I know Lindsey and it was unfortunate for them for that,” she said. “But we definitely saw that clip and it was kind of right in my mind with a little bit of irony I guess.”
In addition to Wiggins' performance for Stanford, teammate Jayne Appel had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Kayla Pederson added 15 points and 16 rebounds for the Cardinal.
Prince, who finished with a game-high 21 points to go with nine rebounds and three assists, said that she didn’t think that she fouled Wiggins. However, she added that she shouldn’t have been in a position to foul the Stanford senior guard.
“I just didn’t think about what I was doing at the time,” Prince said. “I shouldn’t have played her that aggressive so far away from the basket with so little time left in the game.”
Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer, like Wiggins, noticed the similarity of the sequence of events at the end of the game to that of the Duke game.
“It was called with one tenth of a second left, so I thought that was kind of interesting because that’s the same opportunity that the girl from Duke had. So, I thought it was kind of prophetic,” Stringer said. “I looked at it and I almost had a smile. And I said to myself ‘Hmm…that isn’t the best signal that I’ve seen.’”
“It was kind of real prophetic that it would be one tenth of a second left and the girl would shoot the foul shot on our court. That was the last big victory that we had and that’s how we started, with their loss. Maybe to help us understand that nothing can be taken for granted.
Prior to the foul and Wiggin’s free throws, the game remained close in a back-and-forth battle between two top 10 teams.
The match featured 11 ties and 15 lead changes and neither team seemed to have control of the game at any given point.
But afterwards, Stringer and her players said that the defeat was not caused by Prince’s foul, but as a result of the Knights’ various shortcomings throughout the entire game.
“I don’t think we’re nearly as sharp.” Stringer said. “We’re not paying attention to the little things.”
Stanford out-rebounded Rutgers 50-32. RU senior Essence Carson pointed out that the Cardinals’ 20 offensive rebounds were costly for the Knights.
“(Being out-rebounded) had a major impact on the game,” Carson said. “Second, third and fourth chance shots are the ones they converted on.
“If we hadn’t let them get those second, third and fourth chance shots, we wouldn’t have been in the situation that we were in at the end of the game and that’s something that we have to work on.”
Rutgers senior guard Matee Ajavon added that her team failed in other aspects of the game.
“It was the first game of the season, of course we were excited,” Ajavon said. “I think we used our excitement the wrong way though, where at times we were jumpy and not calm.”
Rutgers is now off until Friday night when Creighton visits. Stanford will play the USA basketball team in an exhibition on Thursday before resuming regular season play at Utah on Nov. 18.
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