Minutes after their final regular-season home game Monday night, with family and friends milling about on the Rutgers Athletic Center court, Rutgers seniors Brittany Ray and Myia McCurdy cornered their coach. They stood inside a side hallway following a 72-52 waxing of Louisville.
In February, C. Vivian Stringer booted her struggling squad from their home locker room. Already stripped of their Rutgers-issued practice gear, they moved into a spare room.
Fresh off a confidence-replenishing night, Ray and McCurdy wanted their old home back.
“It was like a late-notice thing that we just decided,” McCurdy said. “It was like ‘Okay, this is a good time.’ ”
Stringer listened to their case. She stared at them.
“She gave us the eye,” Ray said.
Then she relented.
Maybe it was because of Senior Night. Maybe it was because the team enters this weekend’s Big East Tournament with a small gust of momentum, fresh off two complete victories.
Maybe it was because in the final regular-season game of this headache-inducing campaign, the Scarlet Knights (17-13, 9-7 Big East) enjoyed a laugher. The seniors led and the underclassmen played with confidence, Stringer said.
“We needed to have an impressive win,” Stringer said. “So, quite honestly, the score did matter. The score does matter. And it’s for our own confidence.”
Rutgers captured the lead late in the first half and never trailed. They shot a season’s best 51.9-percent from the floor and strong-armed 26 turnovers from the Cardinals (13-16, 5-11). Sophomore Khadijah Rushdan led her team with 16 points and freshman Monique Oliver chipped in 12 from the bench. The senior trio of Ray, McCurdy and Rashidat Junaid combined for 23.
Now the postulating and posturing for the NCAA Tournament begins in earnest. The Scarlet Knights will play again on Saturday in the second round of the conference tournament in Hartford. They earned a first-round pass with the sixth seed and will play the winner of South Florida against Cincinnati.
And despite a modest record and no remarkable victories, they possess a solid chance for a bid to the Big Dance.
, they were a 14 seed last week. They bumped to an 11 seed in Monday’s updated bracket.
Monday night, after a sluggish opening, Rutgers looked like a team capable of extending this season deeper into March. The youthful guard tandem of Rushdan and sophomore Nikki Speed flourished. Speed’s passing broke the game open. Rushdan pushed it out of reach.
Tied at 20 with 3:22 left in the first half, they jockeyed ahead with a 14-3 run heading into the break. Speed (seven points, six assists, six rebounds) spotted Oliver for a pair of three-point plays inside to close the half.
Rushdan asserted herself in the second half, sinking three lay-ups in the first seven minutes to inflate the advantage. Her 3 with 9:44 to play made it a 23-point game.
Once the seconds ticked away, Stringer gave her players their locker room back.
She gave them a warning, too.
“She said that we have to give a great effort in the Big East,” McCurdy said. “Because if we don’t, then she’s going to put us right back in that (other) locker room.”
Andy McCullough may be reached at amccullough@starledger.com