Rutgers Women's Basketball's Big Ten schedule has been a grind, as head coach Coquese Washington noted after each game.
While the Scarlet Knights (8-9, 0-6) got a break from the ranked teams on Sunday, they could not snap their five-game Big Ten losing streak, falling 67-62 to Nebraska. The Cornhuskers (13-4, 4-2) used a dominant rebounding performance and late-game clutch free-throw shooting to pull away late after Rutgers rallied in the second half.
The game was not without its fireworks, of course, with the return of star freshman guard Kiyomi McMiller to the lineup after being suspended for the loss to No. 4 USC, and being a late scratch for the ensuing game against Minnesota.
As she has for much of the year, McMiller shouldered the Scarlet Knights' offensive load with a career-high 33 points and tied another career-high with five three-pointers, including multiple from near half-court.
Washington touched on McMiller's return when asked how it came to be.
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"There was nothing that led to it," she said. "She's back on with our team, we're happy to have her back, I don't have anything to explain. She's back on our team, she's back at practice, we go through practice every day, and we figure out how we want to approach the game in terms of lineups and all that. It was nothing more than that."
Destiny Adams had her eighth double-double of the season, but had trouble consistently creating at the rim, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 35 minutes before fouling out with just over a minute left.
The call was a controversial one, as with Rutgers trailing 64-61 with 1:13 on the clock, Adams and Nebraska's Britt Prince got tangled up after JoJo Lacey drew a foul, and Adams pushed Prince. The officials went to the monitor and determined an intentional foul on Adams.
Lacey eventually missed both of her free throws after the review, and Prince made both of hers to give the Cornhuskers a two-possession cushion. They won the free throw battle at the end of the game to salt away the win.
Prince finished with a team-high 23 points, including a 7-for-10 mark from the free throw line. She was one of three Cornhuskers in double-figures, as Alexis Markowski put up another double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds, while Jessica Petrie scored 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor.
Awa Sidibe was the only other Scarlet Knight in double-figures, finishing with 10 points aided by a 6-for-6 mark from the free throw line.
Rutgers played a solid first half, drawing to within five at the break trailing 36-31. Despite Nebraska's 31-15 edge in rebounding, the Scarlet Knights were able to play a lot of tough defense and forced some bad shots from the Cornhuskers. They were also held to a 2-for-13 mark from the three-point line, way down from their usual 36.1% mark from the arc that ranks second in the Big Ten.
McMiller led the offense in the opening half, going into the locker room with a game-high 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting from the floor. Adams struggled with her efficiency in the opening half, scoring 6 points on 1-for-9 shooting, but she made her mark on defense with five rebounds and impacted shots at the rim.
Rutgers battled back in the third quarter with more aggressive defense, holding Nebraska to just 4-for-12 from the floor and forcing seven turnovers. The Scarlet Knights took the lead for the first time with three minutes left sparking a back-and-forth final quarter.
The lead changed seven more times after Rutgers took it back in the third quarter, with the two teams trading buckets for the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
With five minutes to go, however, the Cornhuskers locked in and made their run, taking a 9-0 advantage over the next two and a half minutes to give themselves the breathing room to pull away.
The Scarlet Knights ultimately got back to a possession, but Nebraska's defense adjusted to taking away McMiller's pull-up game, forcing someone else to beat them. It worked, as McMiller was held scoreless in the final two minutes.
Despite the loss, there were positives to take away. The intensity on defense looked resurgent after struggling on that end in the two prior losses to USC and Minnesota. The Scarlet Knights forced 18 turnovers, up from Nebraska's average of 14.5 per game, and also did much better in converting those opportunities with 17 points off turnovers.
Conversely on offense, Rutgers did a much better job of keeping the ball in their possession with only 10 turnovers.
For the third straight year, the Scarlet Knights were also able to keep the Cornhuskers off the perimeter. They shot 3-for-18 from the three-point line after shooting 7-for-26 and 2-for-25 in the previous two matchups between the teams.
The Scarlet Knights uncharacteristically struggled on the boards, getting outrebounded 49-32, including allowing 18 offensive rebounds for 17 second-chance points.
Rutgers missed an opportunity to pick up a big conference win, in what would have been an upset in McMiller's return to the floor. The Scarlet Knights sit as one of four winless teams in the conference (Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue are all 0-5) while Wisconsin is just ahead with one win in Big Ten play, coming over Rutgers last month.
The race at the bottom of the conference has become more notable with the expanded Big Ten, as the conference tournament will feature only 15 teams with the bottom three being eliminated. Getting on the board against one of the teams near the top would have been a big boost with all of the teams at the bottom still yet to play each other.
Rutgers' tough schedule remains, with three straight currently-ranked teams in No. 20 Michigan State and No. 25 Michigan up next, and No. 1 UCLA following.
The grind of the schedule, as Washington puts it, only gets longer as the Scarlet Knights try to climb out of the Big Ten basement.
RHOOPS PLAY OF THE DAY
Kiyomi McMiller cans the three-pointer from just inside the half-court line.
UP NEXT?
The Scarlet Knights stay home in their next game, as they host No. 20 Michigan State on Wednesday night. The game will tip off at 7pm and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus, with radio broadcasts on Fox Sports NJ and WRSU-FM.
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