There were three league games on Tuesday night, including a one-point thriller between Rutgers and DePaul on the CBS Sports Network. The No. 11/8 Scarlet Knights (17-3, 6-1 BIG EAST) pulled out a 65-64 victory over the No. 23/19 Blue Demons (15-6, 3-4 BIG EAST) in Piscataway, N.J.
Khadijah Rushdan made virtually every play down the stretch for Rutgers. She scored the final 11 points for the Scarlet Knights, including a lay-up with 1.5 seconds left that completed a 16-point comeback in the final 10 minutes of the game. After hitting her lay-in, she wasn’t finished, sprinting to the other end of the court and denying the Blue Demons any last chance of pulling out the victory by blocking a shot 40 feet from the basket.
“Khadijah’s a winner,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. “You see someone who is caged up, when she thinks she’s going to lose. She does whatever she needs to do.”
“I just hate to lose,” said Rushdan, who had 16 of her 24 points in the second half.
It was the second time in her career that Rushdan hit a game-winner to lift Rutgers. She hit a pull-up jumper to beat Princeton last season.
Trailing 56-40 midway through the second half, Rutgers rallied behind its defense as the Scarlet Knights held DePaul without a field goal over the next 5 1/2 minutes. That helped them go on a 21-8 run to close within 62-61 on Rushdan’s layup with 1:49 left. She then blocked a layup by Anna Martin, giving Rutgers a chance to take the lead.
DePaul junior guard Anna Martin got going early against Rutgers. She had 12 points in the first half including six straight at one point. She finished with a game-high 26 points.
With the scored tied at the intermission 32-32, DePaul opened the second half with a 20-6 run to take a 50-36 lead.
“This was a tough game to lose,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. “These players are great young women and deserve to win, but you got to finish it. We deserved this one, but gave it away.”
The Blue Demons have been decimated by injuries this season. They have lost Keisha Hampton (right knee); Taylor Pikes (ACL); freshmen Alexa Gallagher (right knee) and Chanise Jenkins (left ankle) for the season, leaving the team with eight healthy players.
In Morgantown, W.Va., Georgetown’s Sugar Rodgers and Tia Magee both scored 17 points to lead No. 20/18 Georgetown (16-5, 5-3 BIG EAST) to a 64-54 victory over West Virginia (14-6, 4-3 BIG EAST).
Christal Caldwell had 25 points and nine rebounds for West Virginia, one rebound short of extending her double-double streak to eight games.
The Mountaineers led by one point at halftime (24-23) but Georgetown pulled away with a 16-4 run in middle of the second half.
Elsewhere in the BIG EAST, Villanova (13-7, 3-4 BIG EAST) beat Cincinnati (9-11, 0-7 BIG EAST) 62-53 at The Pavilion in Villanova, Pa. Lauren Burford scored 16 points to lead the Wildcats, while teammate Laura Sweeney added 14. Villanova also earned its 13th win of the year, surpassing last year’s total of 12.
VU led 33-18 at the half and made 10 3-pointers in the game.
Bjonee Reaves led Cincinnati with 20 points.
There are two games on the schedule Wednesday night, both will be televised locally.
Wed. 25 CONNECTICUT at SYRACUSE 7:00 p.m.
SETON HALL at USF (BMSC) 7:00 p.m.
Material from interviews, school websites, the Associated Press wire service as well as league and team sources was used in this report.
