Rutgers women’s basketball hosted Caldwell University in a preseason exhibition match today ahead of their start to the regular season against LIU on Monday, November 2nd. The Scarlet Knights outclassed the Cougars from the start of the game, leading to a lopsided final score of 104-49.
The Knights ended the first quarter with a 32-13 lead that became 52-24 at the half. The gap would only get wider from there, as Rutgers hit 53.1% of its total shots on the day, while also landing 50% of its shots taken
from beyond the arc. 33 of the Knights’ points came off of three-pointers. Rutgers also grabbed 21 more rebounds than their opponent, had 12 more assists, and had 14 fewer turnovers. It should be noted that these numbers came against a much lower women’s basketball program because Caldwell is a Division II school for women’s basketball.
Chikae Desdunes led the way for the Knights in scoring with 17 points, while Jaylah Lampley and Tara Daye led the way with 1o rebounds. Mia Pauldo led the way in assists with five. Both Lampley and Daye recorded double-doubles on the day, as Daye scored 16 points to go with her 10 rebounds, and Lampley scored 14 points to go with her 10 rebounds. In total, five Rutgers players scored double-digit points.
Unfortunately, this exhibition doesn’t give us a good view of what the team will look like this year because of the quality of competition; however, it did provide a roster that has had a lot of turnover in the off-season another chance to gel on the court together before the season begins in a few days. Couple this exhibition with the FISU America Games the team took part in this summer, and the hope is the team will be more familiar with how to work as a team when the regular season rolls around.
