Two biggest takeaways from Rutgers women's basketball's win against Lafayette
The Rutgers women's basketball team defeated Lafayette on Friday by a score of 69-48 at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus. The Scarlet Knights (5-5, 0-0) made their impact in the paint against the Leopards (4-4, 0-0).
Here are the two biggest takeaways from the 21-point victory.
Dominance inside
Rutgers controlled the paint the entire night, out-rebounding Lafayette 48-26. The Knights' 20 offensive rebounds proved to be one of the main catalysts in their win.
Rutgers scored 44 of its 69 points in the paint along with 16 second-chance points.
Senior center Chyna Cornwell and junior guard and forward Destiny Adams made their impact close to the basket, following up shots down low and driving into the paint for the Knights.
Adams scored 14 points on a 70 percent success rate from the field while corralling in eight rebounds. Cornwell outdid her teammate with 16 points along with nine rebounds. Both players brought in five offensive rebounds each.
After the game, head coach Coquese Washington commended her players for crashing the boards and said that Rutgers game-planned around doing that more often against the Leopards.
"Against their zone, we didn’t want to just settle for threes," Washington said. "We really wanted to get the ball inside versus the zone, and I thought we were pretty successful for that most of the night."
Cornwell spoke on what helped her the most on the offensive glass.
"Just positioning and also just having a good eye for the ball. What really matters is positioning and being able to box out," Cornwell said.
Antonia Bates excels at facilitating
Although sophomore guard and forward Antonia Bates had 1 point in her 34 minutes of play, she made her mark in other facets of the game. Bates corralled in 10 rebounds, dished out seven assists and registered three steals.
Bates spoke on her impact outside of putting the ball in the basket.
"I’ve never been a player to worry about scoring. I love facilitating the ball to my teammates and putting them in positions where they can score," Bates said.
Washington said that the team spoke with Bates about being a defensive stalwart for the Knights due to her length, athleticism and speed.
"There’s so many times where we just feel like we have to have her on the floor because on the defensive end, she’s our defensive captain, and she keeps us connected," Washington said. "She just does so many things (on the team) that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet in terms of points, but what she brings to the team in terms of helping us operate is huge and can’t be talked about enough."
Rutgers will stay home for a Tuesday night game against La Salle before it plays in its first Big Ten game of the season against Indiana on Saturday.
The game against the Explorers (3-4, 0-0) will tip off at 7 p.m., while the game with the Hoosiers (7-1, 0-0) will tip off at 4 p.m. at Jersey Mike's Arena. Both games will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network as well as 88.7 WRSU-FM.
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