NEW LONDON, Conn. (November 21, 2015) – Junior guard Maria Simmons scored a career-high 27 points but it was not enough as the Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team suffered an 81-69 defeat at Connecticut College Saturday night.
The Scarlet Raiders drop to 1-2 overall, while Connecticut improves to 2-0.
Simmons played 40 minutes for the Scarlet Raiders, adding seven assists, seven rebounds and four steals to her marvelous line, needing just 20 shots for her 27 points. Junior guard Shala Glenn had 16 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, while senior guard Arianna Williams had 13 points, six boards, three thefts and a pair of helpers.
Five Camels were in double figures, led by 16 points from Kylie Caouette and a double-double from reserve Payton Ouimette who had 14 points and 16 rebounds (13 offensive) in 18 minutes.
Rutgers-Newark shot 43.5 percent (27-for-62) from the field, 4-for-13 (30.8 percent) from deep, and hit on 11 of their 18 attempts at the line. CC shot 45.6 percent from the floor and 13.6 percent (3-for-22) from deep, converting 16-of-20 (80 percent) at the line.
The Camels held a key advantage on the glass, grabbing 29 more rebounds than the Scarlet Raiders (54-25), which in part led to a 19-6 edge in second-chance points.
Rutgers-Newark fell behind 9-0 just 2:28 into the game, but did a nice job hanging tough the rest if the first half, chipping away to get within two points at the break (31-29). Trailing by nine at the start of the second, Glenn led the Scarlet Raiders on a 6-0 run with four points to get them within three (22-19), and moments later, R-N tied when Simmons fed Glenn for a layup with 4:35 left in the half. A Simmons bucket a little more than two minutes later gave Rutgers its first lead of the half, but the Camels were able to score four-straight points to take a 31-29 margin into intermission.
The Camels pushed their lead to six points early in the third, but the Scarlet Raiders hung around, getting key baskets from Williams, Simmons and sophomore forward Nikki Sammartino.
Connecticut built a nine-point margin to take into the fourth quarter, and pushed the lead to 12 (58-46) with 7:06 on the clock, forcing an R-N timeout. Unfortunately for the Raiders, the Camels continued to extend the edge, leading by as many as 20 before Rutgers closed the contest on a 12-4 run over the final 1:35.
Rutgers-Newark will return to the hardwood Tuesday night at 6 p.m. when it hosts New Jersey City University in the New Jersey Athletic Conference opener for both schools in The Golden Dome Arena.