Season-ending loss: Rutgers women's basketball falls to Minnesota in 1st round of 2024 Big Ten Tournament
The Rutgers women's basketball team's season came to an end after falling to Minnesota 77-69 in the first round of the 2024 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The Scarlet Knights (8-24, 2-16) fought hard but could not contain the Golden Gophers (16-14, 5-13) in the fourth quarter.
Rutgers' inconsistent first half
Rutgers would take a 10-9 lead at the 5:22 mark of the first quarter after senior guard Erica Lafayette sank her second three-pointer of the game.
Minnesota led 16-14 at the 1:14 mark. An 8-0 run to end the quarter would give it a 24-14 lead. The Golden Gophers extended their lead 28-16 at the 7:14 mark of the second quarter.
From that point on, though, the Knights would go on a 19-11 run to end the second quarter with threes coming from freshman guard Kennedy Brandt, graduate student center Kassondra Brown and Lafayette to keep Rutgers in the game during that span.
What hurt the Knights was their 15 turnovers in the first half, allowing Minnesota to score 15 points off turnovers.
"I thought, in the first half, we were trying to win the game with one play every time down the floor," head coach Coquese Washington said. "And we were gambling a little bit too much, trying to make this pass, trying to make this play."
Despite the turnovers, Rutgers' ability to hit its three-pointers kept it in the game as it made 6 of 11 shots from long range in the first half against the Golden Gophers.
Good third quarter, lackluster fourth
At the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, Minnesota extended its lead to 51-41, but the Knights did not give up without a fight. They ended the third quarter on a 14-5 run fueled by junior guard and forward Destiny Adams' toughness.
Rutgers would outscore the Golden Gophers 20-17 in the third quarter as Adams scored 10 points and brought in eight rebounds in the 10 minutes of action. By the end of the third quarter, the Knights trailed Minnesota 56-55.
Rutgers would take its first lead since the second quarter after Adams' two free throws gave the Knights a 57-56 advantage. The Golden Gophers would then tie the game at 61.
A successful jumper from Amaya Battle at the 6:53 mark of the fourth quarter would give Minnesota a 63-61 lead and kickstart what would be a dominant finish for the Golden Gophers. Battle's shot began a 14-8 Minnesota run to end the game with an 8-point victory.
Rutgers' offense went cold in the fourth, scoring only 8 points in the game's final 7 minutes. The Knights shot just 3 for 15 from the field in the fourth quarter against the Golden Gophers, missing all five of their three-pointers.
Destiny Adams and Amaya Battle go toe-to-toe
The two clear stars for each side were Adams and Battle.
In the Minnesota victory, Battle scored a team-high 32 points, along with five rebounds and seven assists.
"She couldn't miss. She got hot," Washington said of Battle's performance. "We're contesting shots. We're trying different ways to stop her, but she just got in the zone … She put the team on her back, especially in the second half."
Adams, on the other hand, had a historic night. She finished with 31 points and a whopping 24 rebounds, breaking a Big Ten Tournament record for boards in a game.
"My whole team, I think we were all ready to play," Adams said. "We all came, and we wanted to leave everything we had out on the court, and I think we felt that at the start of the game."
Both Adams and Battle put up a 50 percent success rate from the field and showed why they are two of the best scorers in the conference.
Washington and her squad will now look to build for the future when they return to the court next fall for the 2024-2025 season.
"I really like the young ladies that I'm coaching this year. They make it easy to come into work every day to keep fighting because of who they are," Washington said. "We are still in the mindset and the process of building this program up … This year was a really, really tough year for a lot of reasons, but the perseverance that these young ladies showed throughout the season is the thing that we'll take out of it."
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