Rutgers women's basketball falls in road matchup with No. 6 Indiana
The Rutgers women’s basketball team lost to Indiana in a road match earlier today. The Scarlet Knights (9-14, 3-8) were out-scored and out-played at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall against the impressive No. 6 Hoosiers (20-1, 10-1), landing the final score at 91-68.
The game started rather surprisingly. Rutgers came out strong and energetic, surely feeding off of the momentum from its overtime win over Penn State on Thursday. The majority of the first quarter remained fairly equal, each team going tit-for-tat in scoring and regularly switching off leads.
The Knights looked good in the first, keeping pressure on Indiana and preventing the team from scoring in the final 2 minutes of the period. This gave Rutgers a 22-17 lead closing out the opening 10 minutes.
Freshman guard Kaylene Smikle had a nice outing in the first, totaling 9 of the Knights' 22 points. Smikle continues to be a strong player for the Knights this season.
Going into the second quarter, Rutgers was looking to stay aggressive to try and stay on top of the Hoosiers. But before the Knights could run away with a larger lead, Indiana began to close the gap, turning the momentum in its favor.
The Hoosiers led a high-scoring matchup in the second, putting any chance of a comeback for Rutgers in the rearview mirror. Indiana took the lead less than 3 minutes through the second quarter and did not give their opponent the chance to catch up.
The half ended in the Hoosiers' favor at 50-42 despite the Knights' efforts. Indiana out-scored Rutgers 33-20 in the second quarter.
The second half of the game is where the Hoosiers really started to ignite as they outscored their opponent 41-26 in the final two quarters while leading in rebounds 17-13 and assists 10-2. The top ten team showed exactly why it's ranked that high and why it will be a force to be reckoned with in postseason play.
In the third quarter, Indiana out-scored the Knights 21-19 and was led by Grace Berger, who scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. In the final quarter, the Hoosiers only allowed Rutgers to score 7 points and did not allow the Knights to make a comeback.
When it was all said and done, Smikle led the team with a game-high 25 points. The only other double-digit scorer for Rutgers was senior guard Kai Carter with 13 points. Berger and Mackenzie Holmes each scored 21 points to lead Indiana.
The Knights will have a week off before they return to action at home against Wisconsin. The game will be supporting the Play4Kay fund, raising awareness about cancers affecting women. The game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network+ and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
For more updates on the Rutgers women's basketball team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
