WAYNE, NJ – Senior guard Bimpe Fageyinbo (Morris Plains, NJ/Parsippany Hills HS) and freshman center Tiffany Clarke (Jersey City, NJ/Bayonne) led Rutgers-Newark with just six points apiece as William Paterson subdued the Scarlet Raiders, 59-32, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game in the WPU Rec Center.
NCAA Box Score and Play-by-Play
Fageyinbo hauled down a game-high nine rebounds and made two steals while Clarke, playing her just her second game in Scarlet & Black, came up with a team season-high seven blocked shots in just 15 minutes, but Rutgers-Newark (8-9, NJAC 2-4) made just 30.8% of its shots from the floor and committed 29 turnovers against the Pioneers (14-4, NJAC 6-0).
Freshman forward Shatanay McCaskill (Paterson, NJ/Passaic County Tech) grabbed seven rebounds to Rutgers-Newark which also got six rebounds, four points and two steals from junior center Courtney Vacca (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills).
High-scoring freshman guard Jared Tactuk (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) who sat out Saturday's overtime loss to The College of New Jersey tried to play on a sprained ankle, but she managed to put up one 3-point attempt – which she missed – and dished off an assist in only seven minutes of play before going to the bench.
The Pioneers jumped out to a quick 26-4 lead during the opening 8:43 of the contest and cruised to the victory. Rutgers-Newark made just two of five field goal attempts while committing nine turnovers during the opening stretch.
The Raiders whittled the halftime deficit to 30-14 by limiting the Pioneers to one field goal over the final 5:40 of the period to post an 8-2 run.
After yielding a layup to sophomore forward April Smith to open the second period, Rutgers-Newark went on an 8-0 tear highlighted by a 3-point jumper by senior guard Youngor Kehleay (Eatontown, NJ/Monmouth Regional) to draw within 10 points at 32-22 with exactly 15 minutes remaining.
But Pioneer guard Eliza Brown, who finished with eight points and three steals, had a layup and a trey to fuel a 9-0 answering rally which boosted WPU back into a comfortable 41-22 lead with 11:52 left. Rutgers-Newark got no closer than 17 points the rest of the way.
Sophomore forward Absatu Mustapha paced WPU with 15 points and three steals while junior guard Erin Cook drained three of six 3-point attempts on her way to 13 points. Sophomore forward April Smith added seven points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Pioneers while freshman guard BriAnna Lucas notched a game-high four steals to go along with eight points and two assists.
The 32 points were the least netted by the Raiders since back-to-back 30-point totals in the second and third contests of the season when the young team got off to an 0-4 start. It marked the second game this season that no one reached double figures in scoring. It was the third straight NJAC loss for the Raiders.
Rutgers-Newark visits Rowan on Saturday for an NJAC doubleheader. The women tip off at 1 p.m. with the men to follow at 3 o'clock.
