NEWARK, N.J. (November 14, 2015) – Senior guard Maria Simmons led the Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team to a 56-48 win in its 2015-16 season-opener Saturday afternoon at The Golden Dome Arena in the John K. Adams Tip-Off Classic.
The veteran Scarlet Raider finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and three assists in 38 minutes, helping Ashley Cieplicki to her first-ever victory as a collegiate head coach.
Rutgers-Newark will take on nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College Sunday at 2 p.m. in the final game of the John K. Adams Classic as the Cardinals defeated New Jersey City University in the first game of the afternoon, 60-44. John Jay and NJCU will battle Sunday at 12 p.m.
Simmons was one of three Scarlet Raiders in double figures. Junior guard Shala Glenn finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while senior Arianna Williams tallied 11 points, a game-high seven assists, seven rebounds and two steals. The Scarlet Raiders finished with 17 steals as a team, shooting 42.1 percent (24-for-57) from the field, 5-for-16 (31.3 percent) from range and just 3-for-10 at the line. R-N poured in 20 fast-break points and had 38 tallies in the paint, also shooting 11-for-16 in an excellent second-quarter.
Rutgers-Newark jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a three from Williams, pushing the margin to six (9-3) after Simmons' first triple of the afternoon. John Jay (0-1) responded with a 9-0 rally to take a 12-9 lead after one.
Simmons grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast to get the Scarlet Raiders back in front (15-14), and after seeing the Bloodhounds tie things at 19-all, R-N closed the first half with a game-changing 14-4 run to take a 33-23 lead into the locker room. Williams started things with a layup and freshman forward Jocelyn Rodriguez ended it with two as the Scarlet Raiders received five points from sophomore guard Nicole Skelly and four from junior guard Shala Glenn.
Midway through the third, John Jay fought within six (37-31), but as ended up being the case for the rest of the game, the Scarlet Raiders had the answer. Sophomore forward Nikki Sammartino converted a feed from Glenn into a pair before Glenn found Simmons for a three in transition to give R-N a 42-31 lead.
Just 1:33 into the fourth, the Bloodhounds came back to trim the margin to five (47-42) after a three-pointer from junior guard Josephine Diaz, and they did so again with 4:41 on the clock, but it would not be enough as the Scarlet Raiders continued to find buckets when they needed them most. Williams fed Sammartino for a layup with 3:47 on the clock, and another Simmons basket in transition pushed the lead back to eight with 2:33 to go, and John Jay could get no closer than seven the rest of the way.
Senior guard Terri Chu, Diaz and senior forward Amber Villegas were all in double figures for John Jay.
Fans unable to make the trip to The Golden Dome Arena Sunday can follow all the action live via links on www.rutgersnewarkathletics.com.