Women's Basketball recap: #22 Rutgers fails to defend RAC against #8 Maryland

The troubles at home continue for C. Vivian Stringer as her Scarlet Knights lost to the Terps, 71-59.

Eighth-ranked Maryland took advantage of a sloppy Rutgers team to win their fifth-straight Big Ten conference game behind G Laurin Mincy's 24 points. The Terps raced out to a ten point lead to start the game, hitting every shot as Rutgers could not find the hoop. Things would only get worse as the first half continued as Maryland continued to shoot white hot from three-point range to push their lead to a score of 25-7 with 13:32 remaining. However, Rutgers was able to gain momentum before halftime and capitalized on Maryland turnovers to cut the lead to 40-36 at the break.

Rutgers continued to fight to begin the second half and even tied the game under four minutes in. The Scarlet Knights never took the lead, however, and an quick technical fouls on both teams seemed to end any momentum for RU. Maryland pulled away as Rutgers couldn't limit the Terrapins' balanced attack. Four Maryland starters were in double figures for points, and C Brionna Jones had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

UMd. Coach Brenda Frese limited the Knights' mid-range jumper with solid defense, forcing Rutgers to take ugly shots. RU is not a three-point shooting team, so they couldn't sink a couple big shots from behind the arc to mount a significant comeback. Stringer's strategy is to push the tempo to find an driving lane or an outlet, but turnovers caused fast breaks to give the ball back to Maryland. The Big 3 did not have a good night, highlighted by a horrendous shooting performance from Tyler Scaife. She seemed uncomfortable for most of the game and finished with nine points on 4-17 shooting, as well as 1-5 from the free throw line.

Rutgers drops to 3-3 in B1G conference games and 12-5 overall. Next up: RU travels to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers on Sunday, January 18 @ 3PM.