Rutgers Demolishes Princeton With 48-Point Victory

By JP Mestanza: SPM NJ Writer
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Rutgers players enjoy the blowout from the bench. From left: Heather Zurich, Brittany Ray, Myia McCurdy, Epiphanny Prince, Khadijah Rushdan. Photo by Tara Polen.

PISCATAWAY, NJ - Three Rutgers players scored in the double figures as Rutgers followed up its impressive opening-day victory with an 83-35 trouncing of neighboring Princeton Tuesday evening.

Kia Vaughn led the team’s defensive effort with eight rebounds and three blocks, finishing the game with 10 points. Epiphanny Prince led all scorers with 15 points, while redshirt freshman Khadijah Rushdan put away 11 points.. Junior Brittany Ray grabbed a career- and game-high four steals.

“We hoped we could have given her a better game to help prepare them for the weekend,” Tigers coach Courtney Banghart said.

The 48-point margin of victory is the Scarlet Knights’ largest since November 20, 2004, when they won by the same margin over George Washington, scoring 19-straight points in the first half.

Princeton shot just 20.8 percent from the floor, while Rutgers 17 assists nearly tripled the Tigers’ total of six. The Scarlet Knight defense shutdown the Tigers, smothering them at the point of attack and forcing mistakes. Senior Whitney Downs led the Tigers with 10 points and two rebounds.

“I think the starting group did a nice job. They listen, they talk --I’m pleased,” said Coach C. Vivian Stringer during the post-game press conference.

Rutgers got off to a fast start, going 11-2 in the first four minutes, including a no-look pass from Junior forward Myia McCurdy to Kia Vaughn for an easy layup. Two possessions later, Epiphanny Prince took advantage of the open lane and put away an impressive finger roll as the shot clock expired.

“I think so far we did a good job, we’re not where we usually are defensively but that’s because we’ve got a lot of freshman, and it’s a lot of concepts that Coach Stringer’s teaching us,” Prince said, after the game.

The transition from defense to offense remained smooth throughout the game, even when Coach Stringer played all the freshmen on the floor. April Sykes, making her regular-season debut, replied to a Princeton two-point jumper with a nice three-point jumper late in the first half. She finished the game with eight points and three rebounds.

“What we’ve demonstrated so far is that we can bring a player in and not lose the momentum,” Stringer said.

After a flashy debut against Saint Joseph’s, Brooklyn Pope played only six minutes tallying up two rebounds, an assist and a steal. Nikki Speed scored four points and had three assists in 11 minutes of play.

The Rutgers offense spread the ball very well, putting up 17 total assists. Senior Heather Zurrich finished with a game-high five assists, and also scored eight points. Rashidat Junaid added eight as well.

The past two games were warm-ups for this weekend, as Rutgers goes on the road to play back-to-back top ten teams. They’ll play #8 California on Friday and #2 Stanford on Sunday.

“Tuesday,” Vaughn said, “coming off of those two games, will define who we are and what we’re capable of doing.”

Coach Stringer sees the next few games as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience.
“It forces us to play at a much higher level,” she says, “this will cut down on a lot of things that I’m saying [to the team].”

Rutgers will play its next three games on the road. Friday’s game against Cal will tip-off at 11pm ET, while Sunday’s game at Stanford is set to start at 4pm ET. The Scarlet Knights round out their road trip with a Monday night matchup with Temple at 8pm.

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