Epiphanny Prince may be the star of the junior class, but it was fellow junior guard Brittany Ray that stole the show with her play Monday in the Rutgers women’s basketball team’s 45-34 win over Georgia in the Jimmy V Classic.
Ray knocked down a three pointer at the buzzer in the first half to give Rutgers a 23-22 lead going into the locker room after trailing nearly the entire half.
She continued by putting the Bulldogs away in the second half with a pair of jump shots to go along with two assists and two steals. Ray finished the game with 13 points, four rebounds and half of the team’s made free throws. Head coach C. Vivian Stringer called Ray the most consistent player on the team this year.
For all those planning on spending winter break relaxing and having an elongated vacation, the Rutgers men’s basketball team will give you a different spin on the month off. That’s because while most Rutgers students are sleeping in till 2 p.m. every day, the Scarlet Knights will be facing the toughest part of their schedule, and arguably the toughest stretch any team will have to persevere through in the entire country.
The Papajohns.com Bowl representatives could not have picked two hotter teams to come to Birmingham, Ala. than the two that were chosen. The Rutgers football team and NC State are on a combined 10-game winning streak after both teams were on the brink of elimination from bowl contention early in the season.
Rutgers stood at 1-5 after consecutive Big East losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia before getting away safely from Connecticut with a 12-10 win and rallying off six consecutive wins including a 54-34 win over No. 17 Pittsburgh on the road and a 63-14 demolishing of Louisville on ESPN.
As the cold of winter rolls in, the Rutgers gymnastics team looks to heat up their brand new facility at the Livingston Gym in 2009.
The Scarlet Knights are coming off an 11-13-1 year, and finished in last place at the East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championship.
“It’s always been my goal to compete against top level competition,” said Rutgers head coach Chrystal Chollet-Norton. “If you look at our EAGL conference, every team in our conference except us and GW [George Washington] are fully funded meaning special rides and everything you need to have, but having said that we still go up against
After finishing its first meet with considerably nothing less than a successful start, the Rutgers men’s track season is now underway.
The team opened up its season Dec. 6 at Princeton University in the New Years Invitational, which went “very well” according to Rutgers head coach Mike Mulqueen.
Rutgers placed first on the track in three events. Senior hurdler Kyle Grady finished first in the 60m hurdles, finishing with both Big East and IC4A qualifying times of 8.07 seconds.
Senior hurdler Steve Swern finished first in the 600m, clocking a time of 1:21:63. Closely following him was second placed freshman Daniel Lozano at 1:21:79.
The Rutgers women’s track season came off of the blocks strong this weekend, as the team put on an impressive showing at the New Year Invitational in Princeton.
Eight Knights placed first in their individual events, and several others set qualifying marks for the indoor track postseason.
The Knights shone in the 1,000 meter event, with senior Karen Wilson placing first with a time of 3:01.78, with junior teammates Erin Berg and Lesney Elgin crossing the finish line second and third, respectively, only seconds behind her.
The Rutgers swimming team traveled south down Route 1 to participate in the Princeton Invitational this past weekend, although their finishing place was not something coach Chuck Warner nor the team were interested in.
Referred to as a “training meet” by coach Chuck Warner, the Knights left their diving team in Piscataway to host the Galbraith Diving Invite at the RU Aquatic Center and the swimmers only attended two of the events three days.
The lack of emphasis placed upon the meet was evident as the Knights swimmers finished last in the six-team field at Princeton’s Denunzio Pool.
The Rutgers wrestling team placed four wrestlers Sunday in Penn State’s Nittany Lion Open.
Though the No. 13 Nittany Lions ultimately walked away with top honors in the tournament, considering the quality of the competition, the Knights are happy with how they finished.
“I actually thought we wrestled well,” said Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale. “Overall, we had a lot of guys win matches and we beat some pretty good wrestlers.”
Conspicuously absent were senior center Kia Vaughn and freshman Jasmine Dixon.
Stringer had Vaughn on the bench to start the game.
“I wanted Kia to get an opportunity to see how the game was being played,” she said. “Kia was getting ahead of herself, shooting too quickly and reaching for the ball instead of jumping to it.”
Being the sixth woman help with Vaughn’s fouls.
“She could go in with 15 minutes left in the half,” Stringer said. “And afford to play hard and aggressively.”
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