Women's Hoops Guru

(Guru's note: We were down here in Philadelphia on the desk but Stephen was on the scene at Rutgers.)

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – On Tuesday, the Rutgers women’s basketball team once again used a second-half surge to come away with the win at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

The No. 5 Scarlet Knights (21-4, 11-1 Big East), who received a school-record eight first-place votes in Monday’s AP poll, overcame an eight-minute scoring drought from the end of the first half into the second to down No. 14 Notre Dame 57-51.

“We were getting the looks but we weren’t capitalizing off of the good looks,” said Rutgers point guard Matee Ajavon at the postgame press conference. “Credit to Notre Dame defense – they kept us scrambling and at times making bad decisions. We just had to get ourselves together.”

Notre Dame tied the game at 22-22 by halftime after overcoming an eight-point deficit with 6:16 remaining in the first. After the break, the Fighting Irish held Rutgers without a field goal until the 15:36 mark of the second half when center Kia Vaughn made a layup to bring the Scarlet Knights to within 28-26.

Following a couple of lead changes over the next four minutes, the Scarlet Knights finally took control of the game with a 9-0 run that gave them a 41-33 advantage and allowed them to keep the Irish at bay the rest of the way.

Rutgers was able to surge ahead thanks to the play of its big players in the second half.

Sophomore center Rashidat Junaid was half of that solution for the Scarlet Knights.

“In the first half I wasn’t hitting my shots and we talked about it as a team at halftime,” said Junaid, who scored four of her six points during RU’s big run. “Coach told me I need to be calm and take my time and that’s what I was thinking all second half – be calm and settle myself.”

“(Notre Dame) looked a little nervous,” she added in regards to the Irish’s failure to contain Rutgers two big players. “Their center Williams was trying to play both me and Kia – it kind of made it difficult.”

Junior center Kia Vaughn scored 10 of her 14 points in the second half. The combination of Vaughn and Junaid helped Rutgers control the paint as the duo accounted for 12 rebounds.

Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said that Notre Dame’s zone defense was giving her team problems.

“(Notre Dame’s zone is) very active, it’s wide and it changes,” Stringer said. “They went from 2-3 to 1-3-1 and probably everybody in the country knows that we struggle with it. I don’t think it’s anything special for us, that’s just the way they play. We just didn’t handle it, we never have because it requires a heck of a lot more patience – there is no one-on-one.”

Stringer added that Rutgers can use this game as a learning tool for the future.

“Just like every game that we’ve played, the LSU’s, the Tennessee’s, the Connecticut’s, this team, Notre Dame, that plays a zone, it’s important with their style of play. Notre Dame was capable of giving us a 1-3-1 half-court press. Well you know who else plays that extremely well? North Carolina."

Depending on how the draw is designed in next month's NCAA tournament, it's possible Rutgers and the Tar Heels could meet in a regional title round.

That site could also be Greensboro, which is near UNC as it was to Duke a year ago when the Scarlet Knights pulled off the upset that sent the overall No. 1 team home after the regional semifinals.

“So, in advance I already know in my mind what things other people do and Notre Dame was an excellent game for us to play. We struggled quite a bit. I should hope that we do better – it’s been exposed. We’ll get better and we’ll do better.”

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw was pleased with her team’s effort against a tough Rutgers opponent.

“We’ve played all four of the teams that a lot of people think are going to go to the Final Four, probably be No. 1 seeds,” McGraw said. “I think a big difference – I think we’ve gotten a little bit better each game and this was a great defensive effort out there.”

Though they lived up to their billing as second-half warriors, the Scarlet Knights know that they would be better off not having things come down to post-halftime surges.

“I actually think that’s bad because in any game you always want to play 40 minutes and that’s what Coach Stringer has been stressing to us,” said Ajavon, who finished with 15 points and seven assists. “We have to play both halves. We can put ourselves in trouble in the first half and we can’t always expect ourselves to dig ourselves out in the second half. So, we just have to become a 40-minute team.”

Epiphanny Prince led RU in scoring with 18 points on six-of-eight shooting. The sophomore guard also had five assists.

Rutgers's next game is a trip Saturday to face Providence (12-13, 2-10), which can't be taken lightly following Tuesday night's 62-58 upset of No. 22 Syracuse at home.

Future Fab Five Freshmen Ease Sadness Over Departing Seniors.

The time is drawing near when Rutgers seniors Essence Carson, Matee Ajavon, and Katie Adams will transform into the past as one of the brighter eras of the Scarlet Knights' storied history.

But after the farewell tears are shed and the postseason dinner has concluded, an air of eager anticipation will exist over the super recruiting class that will be arriving in the fall.

All five of Rutgers' future freshmen -- Jasmine Dixon and Nikki Speed from California; Chelsey Lee of Fla., Brookilyn Pope of Texas, and April Sykes from Mississippi -- have been named McDonald's All-Americans.

“I’ve never had five McDonald’s All-Americans," Stringer said of her incoming abundance of talent. "They’re going to be in Tampa, Florida. Wow.

“The coaches did a great job – in particular Charlene Mitchell, who’s our recruiting coordinator," Stringer said. "I’ve been coaching many years, I really don’t know, we may have had something close to that when I was at Iowa, but never five people…

“To have five All-Americans. Most people only have one,"Stringer added. "So, we have five and I’m happy to say that because my statement to them was they need to serve notice to everyone: play hard, play great defense, be sharp, be friends, become the family that you are now so that the whole world can see the future Scarlet Knights.

"And so I’m going to look forward to them doing that and I’m going to look forward to hanging out with them and making sure that they begin to think like a Scarlet Knight," the Rutgers coach said.

“That’s pretty special for New Jersey and the future of our basketball team.”