Rutgers Women's Basketball Dominated by Northwestern 73-54

Rutgers Women's Basketball falls to 0-6 in Big Ten play.

Rutgers women's basketball dominated by Northwestern despite strong start. | Rutgers Athletics

After a few inspiring performances to start Big Ten play, Rutgers women's basketball now appears to be in free-fall mode, as they lost their matchup against Northwestern today, 73-54, and are now 1-7 in their last eight games. The Wildcats were in a rut themselves, losing 10 straight before earning their dominating win over Rutgers.

The game would start hot for Rutgers in the first quarter of play, as they held a four-point lead after 10 minutes of play. The Knights would race out to a 17-7 lead throughout this quarter, but Northwestern would start to gain momentum heading into the second, going on a 2-8 run to close out the quarter.

That mometum would continue into the second quarter, as the Wildcats would draw within two with five minutes left to play in the first half, and the Knights would hold a slight 29-27 lead. Northwestern would start to pour it on from there, going on a 12-2 run to go into the half up 39-31.

Nothing would change as both teams came back from the lockerroom. Northwestern would continue to put their foot on the gas in the third quarter to go up by 16 points before the final 10 minutes of play.

Rutgers would generate some more offense in the fourth quarter, but it would all be for naught as they still could not keep up with the Wildcats scoring onslaught, as the Knights would fall by a total of 19 points.

Unlike some of their other losses Rutgers has had recently, this loss leaves very little reason to be hopeful for the rest of the season. Northwestern was the worst team in the Big Ten standings prior to this game, suffering losses to teams like Loyola, Illinois, and George Washington during their ten-game losing streak.

The play on the court reflected this belief as well, as the Knights only shot 29 percent on field goals and 21 percent from three. They were dominated on the boards, grabbing only 33 rebounds in comparison to Northwestern's 45. Their ball movement on offense was not efficient either, as they only recorded five assists in comparison to the Wildcats 24.

The Knights were led in scoring by Faith Blackstone, who went 3/13 on field goals and 5/10 on free throws. Lauryn Swann also netted 11 points, in large part by hitting several three pointers. Antonia Bates led the team in rebounds with 9.

Rutgers women’s basketball will be back in action on Sunday, January 18th, as they are set to head out to State College to take on Penn State at 1 pm.