No. 9 Rutgers Wins First Big East Title
VILLANOVA, Pa. - Move over, UConn. There's a new champ in the Big East. Matee Ajavon scored 14 points and Michelle Campbell added 13, helping No. 9 Rutgers win its first Big East Conference regular-season title outright with a 51-39 win over Villanova on Tuesday night.
The Scarlet Knights (23-5, 14-2) shared the 1998-99 crown with Connecticut, which has won or shared 11 straight regular-season titles.
Rutgers, winners of 18 of its last 21 games, earned its first No. 1 seed in the Big East tournament that begins Saturday at the Hartford Civic Center.
Liad Suez had 12 points for the Wildcats (17-10, 10-6), scoring just two in the second half.
Villanova has a recent history of knocking off Top 10 teams, including the No. 1 Huskies in last year's season finale and then-No. 4 Notre Dame last month.
Rutgers could never really pull away from the Wildcats, thought it hardly mattered. Cappie Pondexter scored six straight points for the Scarlet Knights late in the second half, helping push a four-point lead to 11.
Essence Carson had 10 rebounds for Rutgers, who had a 40-24 edge on the boards.
About 500 Rutgers fans — all clad in red — started chanting "Big East title!" as the seconds ticked away. The team huddled at midcourt and waved to the fans after the game.
The Scarlet Knights certainly had reason to be happy. The expectations for Rutgers, which was 21-12 a year ago, increased markedly with three wins over Top 10 teams in eight days.
The Scarlet Knights, which finished the regular season with wins over seven ranked teams, started their string of upsets with a win at home over then-No. 8 Tennessee on Dec. 29. Four days later in Texas, they rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit to beat the then-No. 4 team. They rallied from 13 down to knock off previously unbeaten and top-ranked LSU.
Now, Rutgers has something to show for those wins.
March 02, 2005
March 01, 2005
No. 24 Pitt Shocks No. 5 Boston College
BOSTON - No. 24 Pittsburgh impressively snapped a three-game losing streak and made sure the Big East race will come down to the final weekend of the regular season.
Chris Taft had 12 points and eight rebounds to lead the Panthers to a 72-50 victory over No. 5 Boston College on Monday night. That kept the Eagles, who are leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference after the season, from clinching a share of the Big East title.
The Eagles (23-3, 12-3) could still win the conference outright or share it if they beat Rutgers on Saturday. No. 15 Connecticut, which is a half-game behind BC, plays Georgetown on Wednesday and No. 13 Syracuse on Saturday.
Antonio Graves scored 13 points and Carl Krauser and John DeGroat each had 10 points and seven rebounds for Pitt (19-7, 9-6), which has beaten Boston College six straight times, including victories in the last three Big East tournaments. Pittsburgh, which had been ranked as high as 10th this season, lost three straight to drop from 17th to 24th in the AP poll.
Craig Smith scored 22 points for BC but, as a sign of the team's failure, airballed a free throw with 5:47 left and the Eagles trailing 59-45. The second shot hit the back of the rim and meekly rolled off.
For BC, the loss was shockingly similar to the one posted by its football team in the Big East finale that knocked it from the lucrative Fiesta Bowl to the Continental Tire Bowl. Like that 47-17 loss to Syracuse, this one wasn't even close.
Smith hit a jumper in the lane to make it 34-32 with 17:38 left. But Pittsburgh scored the next 11 points, getting consecutive putbacks from DeGroat to make it 45-32.
Pitt outrebounded the Eagles 49-27 overall and outshot them 48 percent to 31 percent. It was BC's lowest offensive output of the season.
Boston College won its first 20 games and attained its highest ranking ever — No. 3 — before losing two of its last three games. Another sellout crowd came to say goodbye to the senior class and Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie jammed with the band, playing the drums on "Johnny B. Goode."
BC went 7:19 without scoring while Pitt ran off 11 consecutive points — five from Krauser and four from Chevon Troutman — to take a 16-9 lead. Smith scored 11 consecutive BC points as the Eagles cut it to 26-23.
In the first half, BC shot 29 percent (10-for-34) from the field.
BOSTON - No. 24 Pittsburgh impressively snapped a three-game losing streak and made sure the Big East race will come down to the final weekend of the regular season.
Chris Taft had 12 points and eight rebounds to lead the Panthers to a 72-50 victory over No. 5 Boston College on Monday night. That kept the Eagles, who are leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference after the season, from clinching a share of the Big East title.
The Eagles (23-3, 12-3) could still win the conference outright or share it if they beat Rutgers on Saturday. No. 15 Connecticut, which is a half-game behind BC, plays Georgetown on Wednesday and No. 13 Syracuse on Saturday.
Antonio Graves scored 13 points and Carl Krauser and John DeGroat each had 10 points and seven rebounds for Pitt (19-7, 9-6), which has beaten Boston College six straight times, including victories in the last three Big East tournaments. Pittsburgh, which had been ranked as high as 10th this season, lost three straight to drop from 17th to 24th in the AP poll.
Craig Smith scored 22 points for BC but, as a sign of the team's failure, airballed a free throw with 5:47 left and the Eagles trailing 59-45. The second shot hit the back of the rim and meekly rolled off.
For BC, the loss was shockingly similar to the one posted by its football team in the Big East finale that knocked it from the lucrative Fiesta Bowl to the Continental Tire Bowl. Like that 47-17 loss to Syracuse, this one wasn't even close.
Smith hit a jumper in the lane to make it 34-32 with 17:38 left. But Pittsburgh scored the next 11 points, getting consecutive putbacks from DeGroat to make it 45-32.
Pitt outrebounded the Eagles 49-27 overall and outshot them 48 percent to 31 percent. It was BC's lowest offensive output of the season.
Boston College won its first 20 games and attained its highest ranking ever — No. 3 — before losing two of its last three games. Another sellout crowd came to say goodbye to the senior class and Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie jammed with the band, playing the drums on "Johnny B. Goode."
BC went 7:19 without scoring while Pitt ran off 11 consecutive points — five from Krauser and four from Chevon Troutman — to take a 16-9 lead. Smith scored 11 consecutive BC points as the Eagles cut it to 26-23.
In the first half, BC shot 29 percent (10-for-34) from the field.
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