The Guru Report: Scaife Now Part of Rutgers Scoring Mount Rushmore Leading Payback to Princeton

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers redshirt senior Tyler Scaife was in no rush Wednesday night to get to the ritual of blowing out candles on a cake to mark another birthday for the native of Little Rock, Ark.

She was too busy lighting the Rutgers scoreboard in the first half with 18 of her game-high 24 points as the Scarlet Knights continued their payback tour by victimizing nearby New Jersey state rival Princeton 70-50.

Just one more debt remains on the non-conference portion of their schedule when Houston comes visiting 6 p.m. Saturday.

Scaife, who was 4-for-5 on three-pointer attempts, missed all of last season due to a heart defect that has since been resolved and now her focus is on leading Rutgers (11-2) back to national prominence and in the process has sandblasted her profile, moving from 10th onto the Mount Rushmore of all-time scoring greats to third in program history.

Her latest performance was the fourth straight reaching 20 or more points and eighth overall on the 11-game schedule to date.

Scaife, whose Wednesday game aired on the Big Ten Network, now has 1,884 points after passing Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper and is behind frontrunner Sue Wicks (2,655) and Cappie Pondexter (2, 211) — quick, pick  the one who will belong:

Wicks is a retired former WNBA all-timer with the New York Liberty, while Pondexter and Cooper are teammates on the WNBA Chicago Sky. Scaife, a likely first-round pick in next spring’s WNBA draft, is sitting 116 points behind becoming the third 2,000-point scorer in Rutgers history and just 327 away from pushing Pondexter aside.

With Rutgers deep, Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer doesn’t need to rely on Scaife to play most of regulation, especially with her team opening up large leads.

“When we took it to another level, you may have recognized the style of play,” she said, an allusion to her famed 55 pressure defense. “The names and players may change, but the style doesn’t change. Maybe the ghost or spirit.

“Last year we didn’t have any ghost or spirit,” she said of her worst-ever six-win record.

And if there was a low point, which is why Wednesday’s win is another impressive measuring stick, it came down the road at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym where the Tigers produced a thumping 64-34 victory.

Understand, the Tigers are one of the Ivy League powers alongside Penn, and this season Princeton (6-3) is better, only losing previously at home to just Georgia Tech and narrowly to then-No. 24 Villanova.

“I thank God that I’m able to live to see another day,” said Stringer, who is on her own national countdown to an join an elite group. “It makes a world of difference. It was very scary last year. I hadn’t seen anything like that before.

“That’s over. I don’t want to think about it. This game is one we lost big time to. Coming up Saturday (hosting Houston), we had a 10-point lead, 2 minutes, 10 seconds left. How do you lose like that?”

Wednesday’s win brought Stringer’s combined record at Cheyney, Iowa, and Rutgers to 988-392, placing her within 12 wins, which if all attained by later in the season she is targeted to become the fifth women’s coach to reach or surpass 1,000 career wins.

The late Tennessee legendary Pat Summitt and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer have already passed the milestone while Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma at 999 is favored to reach the number when the Huskies host Oklahoma Tuesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena near New London, Conn.

That same evening if North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell beats Washington Sunday, she also would get her first shot at 1,000.

The way the Big Ten schedule is set, which opens with Rutgers hosting Purdue, Dec. 28, the real heavy hitters don’t come on the horizon until a stretch of nationally-ranked conference teams beginning February 1 at Maryland and then it’s home with Michigan, at Ohio State and home with Maryland before finishing out at Wisconsin, hosting No. 25 Iowa, and then visiting Northwestern.

That stretch is also where Stringer could be knocking on the door to No. 1000.

Almost similar to the fabled 2007 season when Rutgers advanced to the NCAA title game, Stringer will have a stretch to build chemistry before meeting the conference big-timers, which back then was when her team was part of the old Big East.

“The whole conference is a challenge but seeing some tough teams early like South Carolina, which we lost competitively, we’ve seen a lot of different styles. I know I feel much better heading into the conference than last year.”

Scaife was asked what it was like rising to be mentioned among the likes of Wicks and Pondexter.

“It means a lot,” she said. “Cappie, she’s like a mentor to me. We talk all the time. I met Sue a couple of years back, so to be able to just have my name up there, it means a lot. It’s very humbling. Two great players to ever come through Rutgers, I’m just happy to be right behind them.”

Elsewhere on the boxscore, Rutgers’ Jazlund Rollins had 12 points and Ciani Cryor dealt a career-high nine assists while Princeton’s Sydney Jordan and Abby Meyers each scored 11 points and reigning Ivy player of the week Bella Alarie scored 10.

Alarie was Ivy freshman of the year last season.

Though Rutgers is known for its defense, the Scarlet Knights are on a marskmanship streak shooting 51.6 in the three recent  games combined.

Princeton next visits Wagner Sunday.

Looking Ahead

With this being finals week, the Guru local schedule is idle until Saturday when Temple hosts Marist at 2 p.m. in McGonigle while Rider travels to Newark in North Jersey to play NJIT at 1 p.m. on ESPN3. 

On Sunday, Saint Joseph’s hosts Drexel at 1:30 p.m.; La Salle visits Delaware State at 6; Penn State is at Pittsburgh at 2; besides the Princeton-Wagner game.

Nationally, Tennessee is at Long Beach; UCLA is at Seton Hall; DePaul is at Notre Dame; Georgia Tech is at Georgia; Ohio State is at Cincinnati; and Louisville is at Kentucky.

And that’s the report.