Last night 4-5 Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball hosted 4-3 Lafayette live at the Jersey Mike's Arena on a Friday where Rutgers was trying to go 500 and Lafayette continuing to play good basketball. Players to watch out for coming into this matchup with Rutgers were Kaylene Smikle, Destiny Adams and Chyna Cornwell. Players to watch out for with Lafayette were Abby Antognoli, Makayla Andrews and Halee Smith. Cornwell is a rebounding machine for Rutgers while Antognoli can do anything with the ball against her opponents.
Lafayette started off the game strong forcing traveling calls against Rutgers, playing great defense in the beginning and going on a early 5-0 run. Then Rutgers had a big run for themselves going on a 10-0 run finding better looks at the basket and stepping up on defense. Lafayette had trouble towards end of first quarter scoring, playing defense and letting Rutgers go to the basket more. After going on that 5-0 run, they only scored three more points rest of the first quarter with Rutgers up 15-8 heading into the second quarter.
Rutgers then dominated the second quarter shooting the ball well, playing great defense, getting second chance points with key offensive rebounds and drawing fouls. They held Lafayette to single digits again in back to back quarters as they continued to struggle and couldn't get anything going. The Scarlet Knights had all momentum from first quarter which gave them more confidence to keep playing their own game. Heading into halftime Rutgers was leading 33-17 as Lafayette had change up the game plan while Scarlet Knights just had to hold onto the lead.
Lafayette did a better job defending in the third quarter even though they were still down by big and found better looks at the basket. Rutgers continued to dominate on the boards which was tough for Lafayette to overcome. Scarlet Knights was leading 51-30 going into the fourth quarter where Lafayette tried to make one last run but fell short. Rutgers continued to score the ball at a high rate as they ended up winning 69-48 improving to 5-5 on the season as Lafayette falls to 4-4.
Top scorers for Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Destiny Adams 14 points, 8 rebounds
Kaylene Smikle 13 points 6 rebounds
Antonia Bates dominated with 10 rebounds
Chyna Cornwell 16 points 9 rebounds
Photo Credit 📹 Mike Franco
Commenti