In a wild, foul-heavy affair, Rutgers Women's Basketball held on to a 94-84 win over NJIT on Sunday afternoon to take its third straight game to start the season. The Scarlet Knights (3-0, 0-0) struggled to contain the Highlanders' (1-2, 0-0) offense in the first half but used a strong third quarter to pull away and maintained its lead in the fourth quarter.
The game lasted two hours and 20 minutes and featured 65 free throws, including 42 taken by Rutgers. The game's 63 personal fouls called fell seven shy of an NCAA record set by Oklahoma and Kentucky on November 28th, 2014. That game went to overtime - eventually won by the Wildcats 92-88 - but featured 64 fouls in regulation.
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Destiny Adams' career effort led the way once again with a career-high 36 points and 22 rebounds. The 22 boards were two shy of tying her career high as well, set in March's Big Ten Tournament loss to Minnesota.
Five-star freshman guard Kiyomi McMiller had her first star performance as a Scarlet Knight, finishing second on the team with 25 points on 11-for-22 shooting from the floor, her first official game scoring in double-figures in her career.
NJIT was led by guard Alejandra Zuniga, who scored 26 points including 18 in the first half. She was the only Highlander in double figures.
The first half saw a wild back-and-forth affair with contrasting styles. Rutgers used its size and strength in the post to generate shots at the rim, while NJIT rained in threes. The Highlanders shot 9-for-20 from the three-point line in the first half, while the Scarlet Knights hit 11 of their 18 free throw attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
Rutgers took a 20-19 lead after the first quarter, with a quick run late after NJIT took a two-possession lead. Five of the Highlanders' seven field goals in the opening quarter came from beyond the three-point line. Conversely, the Scarlet Knights hit just four of their ten free throw attempts in the opening frame.
Each time Rutgers would begin to pull away, NJIT would go on a mini-run to stay in the game. The Highlanders' offense remained hot, shooting 10-for-19 from the floor and 4-for-7 from beyond the arc in the second quarter. With the score knotted at 44, McMiller ran up the court and drained a fallaway three from the Jersey Mike's Arena logo on the floor to give the Scarlet Knights a lead going into the locker room.
"It was kind of just a rhythm shot," she said. "I just felt it, so I just took it."
That changed out of the halftime locker room.
The Scarlet Knights clamped down the Highlanders' five-out offense in the second half, holding them without a field goal for the final 8:05 of the third quarter. In all, NJIT managed just two field goals on 16 attempts in the quarter.
"We had a little bit of a discussion at halftime about defending better," head coach Coquese Washington said after the game. "And they decided to defend a little bit better."
She referred to her players on what changed.
"I think that it was our main focus at halftime, making that adjustment of defending better," Adams said. "When we went out there, we said, let's just tune into that, tune into the defensive side. We know we're capable of scoring, so once we all locked in to not letting them shoot open threes, that's kind of what happened."
The Highlanders got back on track in the fourth quarter but in a different way. They got to the paint more and drew a whopping 13 fouls leading to 14 free throw attempts. By that point however, the Scarlet Knights had maintained their double-digit lead and were able to outlast an uptempo late surge from NJIT.
UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights have five days off before their next game, as they will face off against Iona on Friday morning in the annual "Recess Game".
The game will tip off at 11am and will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
RHOOPS PLAY OF THE DAY
Kiyomi McMiller ends the first half in style with a go-ahead buzzer-beating three-pointer.
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