Rutgers women’s basketball finished out their Los Angeles road trip with a crushing 86-46 loss against No.2 UCLA. The Scarlet Knights once again struggled to get anything positive going as they have now lost their fifth game in a row by 21 points or more.
UCLA won the opening tip-off, but it was Rutgers who got on the board first, off a three-pointer from Faith Blackstone. After the first score, the Bruins would go on a 19-point scoring run, which was broken up by a Lauryn Swann three-pointer, before UCLA went on another run to close out the first quarter up 26-6.
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The Bruins would score three more points to start the second quarter before Zachara Perkins would hit a three-pointer to bring Rutgers up to 9 points. The Knights would be much more competitive in the second quarter, leading UCLA in points scored during the quarter for most of the quarter; however, Charlisse Leger-Walker would tally a last-second three-point play to extend the Bruins lead to 21 going into the half.
Perkins would open the scoring in the second half with a two-pointer before the Bruins went on a 12-0 run, which was broken by another Swann three-pointer. The Brions followed up that three-pointer with another 8-0 run to close out the quarter. The Bruins held a 68-27 lead going into the final minutes of play.
Perkins would once again open the quarter, this time with a three-point shot. Rutgers would outscore UCLA 19-18 in the fourth quarter, but it did not matter as they entered the quarter with a 41-point deficit.
The Knights were beaten in most statistical categories, but a few were particularly bad. Those categories included rebounds, points in the paint, points off turnovers, and opponent field goal percentage. UCLA out-rebounded Rutgers by 23, scored 30 more points in the paint, and scored 15 more points off turnovers. They also had a field goal percentage of 56 percent, as they hit on 32 of the 57 shots they took. Rutgers, in comparison, had a field goal percentage of 33 percent, hitting only 17 of the 51 shots they took.
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Kiki Rice stood out in a Bruins lineup that looked very good this game. She netted 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Behind her in terms of scoring was a quartet consisting of Leger-Walker, Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, and Sienna Betts, all of whom scored 11 or more points on the day. Angela Dugalic also grabbed seven rebounds for the Bruins.
The one area where Rutgers looked good was their three-point shooting. They hit 9 out of their 20 three-point attempts, good for 45 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Only Perkins and Swann managed to score double-digit points for Rutgers, with Swann scoring 14 and Perkins scoring 13. Janae Walker had a particularly rough game where she scored zero points and grabbed three rebounds before fouling out after 15 minutes on the court. UCLA had eight players score 6 points or more. The Knights only had two.
Rutgers will continue to look for their second conference win this Sunday as it is set to host a red-hot Minnesota team on a four-game winning streak. Tip-off for that game will be at noon inside Jersey Mike’s Arena.
