PISCATAWAY, N.J. — A low-scoring, tightly contested first half led into a tale of two quarters in the second half, as the Penn State women’s basketball team dropped a stirring 70-65 decision at No. 25/RV Rutgers on Saturday (Jan. 6) evening inside the Rutgers Athletic Center.
The Scarlet Knights (16-2, 4-0 B1G) outscored Penn State (10-7, 1-3 B1G) 22-11 in the third quarter, but the Lady Lions owned a 28-20 edge in the fourth quarter in the narrow loss.
With Penn State trailing by one point, 64-63, and 28 seconds on the clock, Amari Carter (Washington, D.C.) stole a pass and raced to the other end, but Rutgers recovered to contest the shot and forced a miss. The Scarlet Knights would hit six free throws to Penn State’s two over the final seconds to account for the final margin.
Junior Teniya Page (Chicago, Ill.) led Penn State with 24 points, including 19 points in the second half — with 15 of those coming in the fourth quarter — for her 63rd career double-figure scoring game. She was 5-of-14 from the field, hitting 4-of-8 shots from 3-point range, and finished 10-of-12 from the free throw stripe. Page added three rebounds, two assists and one steal.
With her 24 tallies, Page marked her fifth 20-point game of the season and 25th of her career to move up two spots on the career scoring charts, ending the night at No. 21 all-time in Penn State history. She now has 1,291 points, passing Louise Leimkuhler (1,280; 1980-83) and Carol Walderman (1,288; 1981-83).
Two other Lady Lions reached double-figures in the scoring column at Rutgers, with Carter adding 18 points for her 14 double-digit scoring game of the season and 23rd of her career and Jaida Travascio-Green (Lisle, Ill.) chipping in 11 points for her 12th double-digit game of the season and 17th in her career.
Carter added four steals, three rebounds and two assists in the game. It marked the seventh time this season that the redshirt-sophomore collected four-or-more steals in a game and tied her Big Ten personal best, which she has done four times, including two-straight games.
Redshirt-sophomore De’Janae Boykin (Springdale, Md.) pulled down 11 rebounds to lead all players and mark her fifth double-digit rebound game of the season. She also tallied six points and a career-high five assists in the game.
For Rutgers, Tyler Scaife paced all scorers with 29 points, while Nigia Greene added 16 points off the bench. Stasha Carey added 10 rebounds, nine points and three blocked shots in the game. Ciani Cryor led all players with seven assists to go along with four steals, three points and two rebounds.
Up Next
Penn State hosts Minnesota on Wednesday, Jan. 10 in a 7 p.m. contest inside the Bryce Jordan Center. The Lady Lions and Golden Gophers will be carried on BTN Plus, as well as over the airwaves of the Penn State Radio Network.