SHREVEPORT, La. — Not too long ago, a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was seemingly guaranteed for the Rutgers women’s basketball team. In fact, five consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 created an expectation that the Scarlet Knights were assured of a spot among the women’s basketball elite.
The past two years, however, have seen those guarantees and expectations replaced by uncertainty and frustration before the tournament was 72 hours old. Tonight at the CenturyTel Center, Rutgers’ season came to a close in a 70-48 loss to second-seeded Texas A&M in the second round of the Dallas Regional.
The Scarlet Knights, who lost to Iowa in the first round of last year’s tournament, battled and fought their way into the postseason behind forward April Sykes and yet another surge during February and March. They entered tonight having won six of their last seven games, as coach C. Vivian Stringer said her team didn’t find its identity until midway through last month.
Trying to avenge a 29-point loss to the Aggies earlier in the season, the seventh-seeded Knights kept it close for the first half but were ultimately swallowed up by Texas A&M’s suffocating man-to-man defense.
"It’s a shame our season had to end as it did, especially against this team," Stringer said. "We wanted to see a big difference in the way we played, but it looked like the same old team. Maybe A&M got better."
Said junior guard Khadijah Rushdan: "It hurts. We’ve been improving so much and preparing for this team for the last two weeks when we thought we may play them. If we didn’t practice well, I would understand. It hurts to revert."
The Aggies (29-5) will move on the Dallas next weekend to take on Georgia. The Scarlet Knights (20-13) are headed home — and have work to do to climb back toward the top of the women’s game.
The cupboard is hardly empty for the Knights. They had no seniors on the roster; Sykes is turning into a future WNBA player and Stringer has an impressive all-New Jersey recruiting class coming in headed by Neptune High guards Shakena Richardson and Syessence Davis and Trenton Catholic guard Briyona Canty. The Hall of Fame coach also landed 6-3 center Christa Evans (Jackson Memorial).
Rutgers (20-13), which was embarrassed by the Aggies in its Dec. 19 defeat at Madison Square Garden, protected the ball early — they had 27 turnovers in the first meeting — and was sparked by Sykes' 14 first-half points.
But Sykes and the Knights simply didn’t have enough firepower to keep pace with the talented and athletic Aggies, who made a halftime adjustment to foil Rutgers’ back-door cuts and drives to the basket.
Trailing 32-24 at intermission, Rutgers hit only two field goals in the first seven minutes of the second-half and fell behind 47-29 with 13 minutes left in the game and never recovered.
"We just got away from it," Sykes said. "We started standing around and picking up our dribble. I was still making the cuts. We just weren’t consistent in executing."
Sykes paced the Knights with 21 points, including 14 in the first half. Guard Erica Wheeler added 12. Rushdan, who simply wasn’t quick enough for the Aggies, had just four points on 2 of 9 shooting. Rutgers shot just 35.8 percent (19 of 53) and had 20 turnovers.
Forward Danielle Adams, the Aggies’ human double-double, finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Sydney Carter chipped in with 14 points as the Aggies shot 46.2 percent (24 of 52).
Rutgers, which found success getting inside against the Texas A&M defense in the first half, went back to that gameplan to start the second half but the Aggies were waiting. They packed in their defense, making it difficult for the Knights to make lob passes to Sykes and forward Chelsey Lee. Rutgers turned the ball over on its first two possessions.
The Aggies, meanwhile, began to pull away as they turned an eight-point halftime lead into a 44-29 lead with 14:38 to play on a pair of free throws by Sydney Carter. Adams scored on a jumper and put-back during the surge as Texas A&M’s offense was jump-started by its defense.
The Knights hit just two field goals — both by Sykes — in the first seven minutes of the second half, and the Aggies’ lead reached, 47-29 — their biggest of the game to that point — with 13:00 minutes left to play behind a 7-0 surge. Wheeler stopped a three-minute scoring drought for the Knights at 12:35, but the damage had been done.
"No one expected us to be here but it shouldn’t have to end like this," Sykes said. "... Our season has been a roller coaster. Our immaturity was exposed again on national TV."
Dave Hutchinson: dhutchinson@starledger.com