Rutgers women's hoops falls at home to Wisconsin in annual Play4Kay Game
Coming off of Tuesday's win over Minnesota, the first at Jersey Mike's Arena since December, the Rutgers women's basketball team fell at home 61-43 to Wisconsin in the program's annual Play4Kay Game. The Scarlet Knights (8-20, 2-13 Big Ten) struggled with shooting woes once again and were held to a season-low in points, one game after arguably their best offensive performance of the season.
The Badgers (12-12, 5-9 Big Ten) relied on star forward Serah Williams once again, racking up her 11th consecutive double-double with 17 points, 18 rebounds, and five blocks.
Rutgers had a double-double of their own as well, as Destiny Adams notched her seventh of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Similar to the Scarlet Knights' loss in Madison a few weeks ago, a slow start offensively set the tone and made it hard to come back after the Badgers built up momentum on the court and on the scoreboard. Wisconsin jumped out to a 12-0 run to start the game as Rutgers missed its first eight shots from the floor. Overall, they shot just 4-for-16 in the period and trailed 18-8.
"We get shot opportunities, we gotta make them," head coach Coquese Washington said. "We can't have high-turnover first quarters. I think those two things kind of can make us start off slowly. We've had, I don't know, 5 or 6 games in a row where we've had single-digit points in the first quarter. It seems like we need to settle down before we really get comfortable scoring. I think that comes with a young backcourt, to be honest."
Another aspect of the Scarlet Knights' offense that struggled was the perimeter shooting. Rutgers shot 4-for-14 from beyond the arc and did not make a three until midway through the third quarter courtesy of Kassondra Brown. While the rest of the team could not get anything going from the outside, senior wing Erica Lafayette hit both of her three-point attempts in the second half. Lafayette, who made multiple threes for the second game in a row after hitting from the outside three times against Minnesota, has begun to carve out a nice role as a spot-up shooter, particularly in the corner.
"She is finding her role on this team," Washington said. "She's put in so much work to become a consistent three-point shooter for us. Early in the season, she was like 'I put in all this work...' and I said 'Just relax, it'll come, it'll come, you just gotta keep doing the work'. Now it's coming and she's a fantastic energizer. When she makes a shot, it's a jolt of energy for our whole team because of who she is on a daily basis."
Once again, the Scarlet Knights were able to stay close to the Badgers for three quarters, but the first-quarter woes proved to be too much to overcome.
The defensive effort, on the other hand, was largely good outside of the opening minutes but again could not overtake the shotmaking problems. Williams was relatively held in check during the first half, scoring only two points with eight rebounds while turning the ball over four times. Eventually, the Brooklyn, N.Y. native found her spots and dominated in the second half.
Even though Rutgers played well in the half-court, one part of the defense - stopping Wisconsin in transition - proved to be extremely difficult. The Badgers outscored the Scarlet Knights 15-2 in fast break points and the issue was compounded by the fact that they often were able to run out off of Rutgers misses to get easy buckets.
Off the court, the program was able to celebrate the fight against cancer and honor those who have and are currently fighting. This included a ceremony pregame and at halftime, where the team honored cancer warriors with a special pregame reception as well as a halftime celebration. The team welcomed 80 survivors to total over "579 years of survivorship", according to a release.
"They were so enthusiastic and enjoyed that special moment," Washington said. "It was cool to see them all be down there with the anthem and the starting lineups. That was a lot of fun and it made the start of the game for us really fun."
Up next: Rutgers is back in action on Wednesday, as they travel down to Maryland to take on the Terrapins at the Xfinity Center. Tip-off is set for 7 pm and will air on Big Ten Plus.
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