No. 14/18 Rutgers Women’s Basketball Falls To No. 17/15 Iowa 72-66

The winning streak for the no. 14/18 Rutgers women’s basketball team is over at ten games, as they fell to no. 17/15 Iowa on the road Wednesday night. It was tied at 21 after the first quarter and the Hawkeyes led by 2 points at the half. After Iowa led by as much as 8 points in the fourth quarter, Rutgers battled back to cut the lead to 1 point at 63-62 with 1:41 to play in the game. However, Iowa made 7 of 8 free throw attempts to close out a 72-66 victory.

The nation’s leading scorer, Megan Gustafson, had a game high 32 points on 13 of 16 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Hawkeyes. Iowa shot 50% as a team from the floor and was 19 of 25 (76%) from the free throw line.

Rutgers had a +5 advantage on the boards, but were even with Iowa on points in the paint and points off of turnovers. The Scarlet Knights shot 45% from the field in the game, but struggled from three-point range, making just 4 of 25 attempts (16%) from behind the arc. They were 8 of 12 (66%) from the free throw line.

Stasha Carey led Rutgers with 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting and added 6 rebounds. Arella Guirantes finished with 12 points but was just 5 of 16 from the floor and 0 of 8 from three-point range. She added 5 rebounds and 3 assists. CC Cryor was the only other Rutgers player to score in double figures with 11 points, as well as 4 assists and 2 steals. She did commit 5 turnovers. Caitlin Jenkins had 7 points and 7 rebounds, while heralded freshman Zippy Broughton scored back to back baskets late in the first half, finishing with 4 points in 8 minutes of play.

Up next, Rutgers will take on Penn State on the road this Sunday at 2 p.m. The two teams met at the RAC earlier this month and Rutgers won 74-61. The rematch will be shown live on BTN PLUS ($), which you can view here. The Scarlet Knights are now 15-4 overall, 7-1 in the Big Ten and still in first place of the conference standings, with Iowa in second place (15-4; 6-2). They’ll look to bounce back against the Nittany Lions this weekend.

Note: Iowa honored coach C. Vivian Stringer before the game for achieving 1,000 wins in her career earlier this season. Stringer coached Iowa from 1983-1995 and won 269 games there before taking over at Rutgers, where she is now in her 24th season.