Rutgers women's basketball lets halftime lead slip to Marquette, suffers 3rd straight loss
The Rutgers women's basketball team kicked off the inaugural Battle on the Banks tournament with a high-major matchup against Marquette. The Scarlet Knights (4-3, 0-0) lost 59-57 in a nail-biter against the Golden Eagles (3-2, 0-0), who rallied back after trailing by 11 at halftime.
Marquette started what little scoring occurred in the first quarter with a jumper from Lee Volker inside the arch. The two teams traded a couple of scores, but missed shots told the tale of the first quarter.
Both teams shot a combined 7-of-32 from the field through the 10 minutes, combining for 14 turnovers and just 9 points scored each.
The second quarter saw Rutgers break out and play arguably its best quarter of the season. Freshman guard Kyomi McMiller complimented her great defensive efforts with a pair of buckets as the Knights outscored the Golden Eagles 19-8 to lead 28-17 at halftime.
Rutgers shot a much-improved 9-of-18 in the second quarter compared to 4-of-16 in the first quarter. The Knights were able to pull away because of Marquette’s poor shooting from the floor in the first half, but the script would flip coming out of the half.
The Golden Eagles exploded in the third quarter to the tune of 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Volker led the flock with 9 points in the third, going 4-4 from the floor and making her only three-point attempt. Much of Marquette’s comeback was due to senior guard Destiny Adams' foul trouble early on. Adams had three fouls before the fourth quarter and saw reduced minutes as a result.
The fourth quarter was the most exciting one of the day, with a total of seven lead changes and 38 points scored. Rutgers turned the ball over five times in the final 3 minutes as the Golden Eagles completed the comeback. Skylar Forbes scored the go-ahead basket from the charity stripe in a game, ending with a career-high 23 points.
McMiller scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting, going 3-6 from three-point range. She also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out two assists.
The Knights will now recoup as they look ahead to Saturday when they will take on Georgia Southern for their second game of the Battle on the Banks tournament. The game will start at 2 p.m. and broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
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