Gashed by Gophers: Rutgers women's basketball drops 4th straight conference game against Minnesota
The Rutgers women’s basketball team has dropped its last four games after falling to Minnesota 76-50 on the road. Coming into today’s game, the Scarlet Knights (8-8, 0-5) received some unfortunate news regarding junior guard and forward Antonia Bates. Bates took to social media to announce that she would be stepping away from the team to undergo knee surgery, prematurely ending her third season on the Banks.
Another player Rutgers was without was freshman guard Kiyomi McMiller, who was benched against USC after an altercation with a teammate. McMiller did make the trip to Williams Arena and was not listed on the team’s availability report, yet she did not participate in the contest. The Knights have seen their offense sputter without the team’s leading sorcerer, and concerns amongst fans continue to grow with the uncertainty surrounding McMiller’s situation.
It was another slow start for Rutgers, who managed just 11 points in the opening frame and 23 points in the first half on 9-for-35 shooting. The Knights have now failed to score 30 points in the first half of a game since their 86-48 win over Wagner 24 days ago. In the five games since, Rutgers has managed just one win and is still looking for its first conference victory on the season.
“We just got to keep trying to get better in the little things, said head coach Coquese Washington. “Scoring has been a problem for us the last few games, so we’ve got to figure out a way that we can get more points on the board. Felt like we had a lot of good shots tonight that just didn't fall”
The second half was not much better for the Knights, managing 27 points, with the only real offensive production coming from senior forward Destiny Adams with 15 points. Graduate student guard Awa Sidibe and Adams were the only players to record multiple made field goals in the second half for Rutgers.
“We have to get more contributions out of everybody on the roster and not just be so reliant on Destiny,” Washington said. “She gets a lot of attention and rightfully so because she's so talented.”
Adams would go on to score a game-high 28 points in the loss on approximately 42 percent shooting from the field and a near-perfect 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. It was also a historic night for Adams, who tallied her 1000th career point, to go along with her seventh double-double of the season.
Four different players tallied double figures for the Golden Gophers (16-1, 4-1), led by Amaya Battle, with 21 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the field and an effective 50 percent from beyond the arc. As a team, Minnesota shot approximately 42 percent from the field and outscored the Knights in 3 of 4 quarters.
Rutgers has faced some really tough opponents to start conference play, with its last four Big Ten opponents having just two combined losses and 59 combined wins. Unfortunately for the Knights, things do not get any easier with the Big Ten featuring some of the top teams in all of women’s basketball.
Rutgers is back at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Sunday to take another strong team in Nebraska, looking to snap a season-long four-game skid. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
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