The Guru Report: Michigan State Drops Rutgers From Big Ten Deadlock at Top

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

In the lone game played among the Guru’s local D-1 group Monday night, Rutgers got upended at home by Michigan State 66-55 in the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J., and dropped out of what had been a three-way tie atop the Big Ten standings.

The loss by the Scarlet Knights (15-3, 5-2 Big Ten) was a disappointment considering the celebratory accomplishments reached by redshirt junior Arella Guirantes, who had a career-high 28 points against the Spartans (11-7, 4-3), became the 39^th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, and helped fuel a rally from a 12-point deficit to take a brief lead.

Michigan State was better, however, when it came to closing out, using a 15-2 run over the final seven minutes of regulation.

On one hand, the Scarlet Knights had their best night at ball control, committing just four turnovers, the lowest in four seasons.

On the other, they got woman-handled on the boards, out-rebounded 47-26.

“They out-rebounded us and they attacked us very well,” said Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer. “They were well organized, and I’m not surprised. We’ve had close games in years past. For some reason, we weren’t up for the task today.”

Rutgers’ two conference losses were both at home, to No. 17 Indiana, which was ranked slightly higher at the time, and Monday night to the Spartans, that had been ranked.

Guirantes was 10-for-24 from the field and connected on three attempted trtiplets.

Northwestern, which moved into the Associated Press rankings for the first time in several seasons, is in the first slot knotted with Iowa.

The Scarlet Knights fell into a third-place tie with No. 20 Maryland, which beat Indiana 76-62 at the Xfinity Center as Shakira Austin scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half at home in College Park.

Grace Berger had 22 points for the Hoosiers (14-5, 4-3).

Rutgers next plays at Michigan Sunday at 2 in Ann Arbor.

And that’s the report.