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Sunday, Feb. 6 2:00pm ET
Stewart, Washington pace Rutgers | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) -- Carlita Washington had been waiting all season to make an impact for the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Washington, a junior college transfer who was brought into the Scarlet Knights' fold for her offensive prowess, got a chance to show it off Sunday when she took over the point guard spot for injured Tasha Pointer and led No. 10 Rutgers (No. 12 ESPN/USA Today; No. 10 AP) to a 77-41 rout of Syracuse in a Big East Conference game. Pointer sprained her ankle Friday night during the team's practice, and coach C. Vivian Stringer held the junior out of the game after watching her limp through Sunday morning's shootaround before the game. "Every team has role players," Washington said. "I wasn't really sure of my role when I got here, because this team emphasizes defense and I was a shooter. But my confidence level is much higher today than it was before the game." Washington scored 19 points and had a team-leading six rebounds in 34 minutes of action. She patiently directed the Rutgers offense, which showed much more life than it has through much of the season. She also made a tremendous block of a shot by Syracuse's Jamie James, who had what appeared to be an easy basket after a steal midway through the second half. Washington beat James to the other end of the court and solidly slapped the ball away, bringing the crowd and her teammates to their feet. The victory was the fourth straight for Rutgers (15-4, 7-2 Big East), which beat Syracuse (8-11, 1-7) for the 20th time in 21 meetings. Pointer's absence was hardly felt against the injury-depleted Orangewomen, who suited only nine players. Rutgers broke a 7-7 tie with a 32-7 run to end the first half, then continued to dominate in the second half, extending the lead to the final 36-point margin as Stringer played her entire bench. Shawnetta Stewart, who sparked the Scarlet Knights with 11 of her 15 points in the first half, played just the opening five minutes of the second half. "It was good to see our offense play as well as we did," Stringer said. "The team realized it had to step up with Tasha sidelined, and Carlita did a fine job for us. There were a lot of bright spots offensively for us today. It was good to see us stroke it (on offense)." Meanwhile, the Rutgers defense, fifth in the nation and already responsible for holding eight teams below 50 points, did it again Sunday by forcing Syracuse to shoot far out from the basket and not taking the best shots. "They (Rutgers) take you out of your offense," said Syracuse coach Marianna Freeman. "We were getting shots, especially in the second half, but they weren't going down. Rutgers just keeps throwing bodies at you, which makes their defense so much more effective. We had to handle their defense, and we just didn't." The game statistics are proof of that. Syracuse's Beth Record, who entered the matchup as the conference's leading scorer at 17.2 points per game, was held to five by the Scarlet Knights. James led the Orangewomen with 15 points. "We needed a breakthrough game after some of the struggles we've had," Stringer said. "I was just sorry it had to be against Syracuse, because of coach Freeman." Freeman played under Stringer at Cheney State and was an assistant to her at Iowa before taking the Syracuse post. | ALSO SEE Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
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