College basketball

First half: Rutgers 31, Irish 20; second half: Irish 43, Rutgers 16

By Times wire
Published January 24, 2005

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame had the better second half Sunday. Jacqueline Batteast made sure of that.

After No.6 Rutgers held Notre Dame to its lowest scoring half of the season (20), the No.11 Irish held the Scarlet Knights to their lowest scoring half (16) in the second.

Batteast had two more points in the second half than the Knights, finishing with 27 to lead the Irish to a 63-47 victory.

"I think Batteast decided they weren't going to lose. She put this team on her back," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said.

Batteast scored the first 12 of the second half to get the Irish back into the game, then added six during a 23-0 run that put the game away.

"Twenty-three points? That's crazy," Stringer said. "It was like, "What the heck is going on?"'

The victory was the 400th for coach Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame. She improved her record at Notre Dame to 400-152, and is 488-193 overall.

"It feels great to win this game," she said. "It was a really important win."

NO.2 LSU 79, NO.17 VANDERBILT 68: Sylvia Fowles scored 20 of her 22 in the second half, and the Tigers never trailed in their fourth straight victory. Vanderbilt had dominated this series in recent years, winning nine of the last 11. Its last loss to the Tigers in Nashville was Jan. 21, 1999. Seimone Augustus scored 20 for LSU, which is off to its best SEC start ever at 5-0.

NO.3 OHIO ST. 71, NORTHWESTERN 59: With a team that has 10 players averaging at least eight minutes, Buckeyes coach Jim Foster is never out of options. "We have weapons and we're going to use them," he said after eight scored, nine had rebounds and seven contributed assists. The victory was the eighth in a row for host Ohio State.

NO.7 TENNESSEE 67, KENTUCKY 49: The Vols raced to a 22-2 lead midway through the first half and held the Wildcats to six field goals before halftime. It was the Vols' 56th straight SEC win at home and 38th overall in the league's regular season.

PENN STATE 73, NO.8 MICHIGAN ST. 56: Tanisha Wright and Jess Strom each scored 24 in the host Lions' sixth straight victory and fourth over a Top 10 team. Wright had 16 points in the second half, including 10 during a 25-7 run that put the Lions ahead 67-51 with 2:36 left. That spurt erased a three-point deficit and ended a stretch of more than six minutes without a field goal.

NO.12 MINNESOTA 80, ILLINOIS 68: Kelly Roysland doesn't have a household name, but Illinois coach Theresa Grentz won't soon forget her. Roysland came off the bench to score a career-high 19 for the host Gophers. Roysland hit all six of her field-goal attempts in the first half, including a pair of 3-pointers, as Minnesota pulled away. The sophomore's high was 16. "She'd hit five 3-pointers all season, and she hits two in the first half against us," Grentz said.

NO. 14 BOSTON COLLEGE: The game at Providence was rescheduled for 7 tonight.

N.C. STATE 67, NO.16 MARYLAND 55: Wolfpack coach Kay Yow figured the best way to upset host Maryland was to focus on stopping it leading scorers, Crystal Langhorne and Shay Doron. The Wolfpack executed the game plan to near perfection. Langhorne had 13 points and 19 rebounds, but was 4-for-11 from the floor. Doron, who came in averaging 20.6 points, scored only two on 1-for-12 shooting. "Defense is always a large part of our game plan," Yow said.

NO.18 DEPAUL 90, SO. MISS. 63: Jenna Rubino, Allie Quigley and Caprice Smith scored 16 apiece to lead to the visiting Blue Demons. The Blue Demons shot 59 percent from the floor and forced 20 turnovers in winning their fourth straight game.

NO.21 GEORGIA 67, MISS. ST. 57: Tasha Humphey had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the visiting Bulldogs. Sherill Baker finished with 14 points and Megan Darrah added 10 for Georgia, which rallied from a six-point halftime deficit.

[Last modified January 24, 2005, 08:55:16]