Cappie Pondexter pulled up from the top of the key for an uncontested 3-pointer. The ball fell through the net, giving Rutgers a six-point lead. A lead Syracuse would not conquer.

Rutgers held on for another minute for a 64-54 win over the Syracuse women’s basketball team Wednesday night in front of 577 at Manley Field House. Until Pondexter’s shot gave the Scarlet Knights a 60-54 advantage, Syracuse had every opportunity for an upset, capitalizing its game plan against a contrasting Rutgers strategy.

‘I guess every team has a game where they show up against a team,’ Pondexter said. ‘And I guess Syracuse is that team this year. Until (the 3-pointer), we weren’t able to take the game under our control.’

The Orange used a 2-3 zone against a quick Rutgers team, limiting its penetration and controlling the tempo. More importantly, Rutgers didn’t press as much as the first meeting between the teams, and SU benefited. Rochelle Coleman used pick and rolls with Tracy Harbut for some easy scores and Jessica Richter scored a career-high 21 points.

Meanwhile, Rutgers tried to beat the zone up the floor before it could set up and relied on its tough man-to-man defense that forced 26 Syracuse turnovers in the first game, but only 17 Wednesday.

The teams went into halftime deadlocked at 31, and if it wasn’t for SU’s free-throw shooting in the second half, the score might have been stuck at 31 for a while. It didn’t score a field goal until 12 minutes left in the second half when Coleman knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing. The shot gave SU a 42-41 lead because the Orange had hit seven free throws during those 12 minutes. In addition, SU’s fierce defense continued to stifle the Scarlet Knights.

‘They’re young, but they don’t give up,’ Pondexter said of Syracuse. ‘They’re going to be a tough group of kids in the future. (Coleman) makes everything go for them. She knows her personnel really well and she knows who to get the ball to at the right time.’

Coleman continued to dictate the action, and never relinquished the lead until Pondexter made it a 54-52 game. Richter knotted the score immediately after with a lay-up, but SU failed to score for the remaining three minutes.

Pondexter made a lay-up before her 3-pointer, and hit two more free throws to ice the game.

‘Last year, we were able to take (Pondexter) away because (Rutgers) didn’t have as much supporting cast at the time,’ Cieplicki said. ‘That was the game right there. If they weren’t going to press us, we had a shot to stay with them tonight and get them.’

‘Syracuse plays us tough all the time,’ said Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer. ‘Coach (Cieplicki) does a great job, they work hard. Each person understands their job. Coleman did a great job of distributing the ball. Each of these players stays within themselves.’

And it worked until the final scoring drought. SU shot 17 for 21 from the charity stripe and had the same number of steals and turnovers as Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights didn’t score any fast break points. Stringer said her team was a step slow the entire game, but it still offset career scoring nights for Richter and Harbut (11), and a solid floor game from Coleman.

‘At the end when we really needed to be there, we lacked some aspects of the game,’ Coleman said. ‘We didn’t finish the game.’

Score box

No. 10 Rutgers 64

Syracuse 54

Box score

1 2 F

No. 10 RU 31 33 64

SU 31 23 54

Scarlet Knights (19-5, 10-2)

P R A

Pondexter 25 4 1

Ajavon 12 1 3

Campbell 8 2 0

Richman 8 10 1

Carson 4 1 1

Newton 3 6 3

Theodoris 2 3 0

Locke 2 1 0

Jett 0 0 2

Orange (11-13, 3-10)

P R A

Richter 21 7 1

Harbut 11 2 2

Nwagbo 8 4 0

Coleman 7 2 3

Riley 5 4 1

Sipaviciute 2 2 0

Kohn 0 1 1

Published on February 16, 2005 at 12:00 pm