Women’s Basketball Exits Big Ten Tourney with Loss to Indiana

INDIANA 66 - RUTGERS 54

The 2021-22 season for Rutgers women's basketball came to a conclusion Thursday afternoon in Indianapolis. A 66-54 loss to the 14th ranked Indiana Hoosiers, a day after Rutgers trounced Penn State 75-50 to advance to the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Rutgers hung tough with the Hoosiers all afternoon, trailing by six points 32-26 at the half, and came within four points of the tie when Osh Brown connected on a layup with 6:58 to go in the third quarter that made it a 34-30 game.

However a 7-2 run by Indiana, where the Hoosiers were perfect on a trio of free throw attempts to go along with buckets by Grace Berger and Mackenzie Holmes, pushed the Indiana lead out to nine points.  With 1:58 to go in the third, a jumper by Chloe Moore-McNeil made it an 11-point game, 46-35.  Before anyone knew it Indiana had outscored Rutgers 16-11 in the quarter.

Rutgers' struggles shooting were really apparent in the quarter, connecting on only 27 percent of its shots (4-of-15), while Indiana was shooting at a precise 50 percent (6-of-12) for the quarter.

Senior Osh Brown had her 12th double-double of the season, and second in a row in this tournament, leading Rutgers with 12 points and 10 rebounds. She has 61 double-doubles in her illustrious career. According to Scarlet Knights.com, Brown "finished her collegiate career with 1,821 points. Her 1,389 rebounds also make her the NCAA active career leader and now ranks her No. 27 all-time in the NCAA career rebounds record book."

Sayawni Lassiter was again terrific off the bench for the Scarlet Knights, connecting on 5-of-9 shots for 12 points. Shug Dickson finished the game with eight points on 4-of-11 shooting.

Rutgers finished the season at 11-20 and were 3-14 in Big Ten action.