LANGHORNE, Penn. (Nov. 15, 2019) – Senior guard
Fatimah Williams scored a game-high 19 points and sophomore forward
Tamara Johnson netted a career-high 16 points to power the Rutgers University-Camden women's basketball team to a 63-44 victory over Penn State-Lehigh Valley on the first day of the Cairn University Tip-Off Mixer here Friday.
Rutgers-Camden improves to 2-0, while Penn State-Lehigh Valley falls to 0-3.
After the Nittany Lions scored the first two points of the game, the Scarlet Raptors bounced back to take a 17-15 lead into the second quarter. The teams were tied at 17-17, 19-19 and 21-21 before the Scarlet Raptors took the lead for good, 24-21, on a trey by the sophomore Johnson, who passed her previous high scoring output of 14 points, set against Stockton University as a freshman on Nov. 28, 2018.
The Raptors built a 43-33 lead after three quarters, by which time Johnson had tied her career high with 14 points. She ended up shooting 6-for-11 from the floor, including 4-for-8 from three-point range, on her way to the 16 markers. She added seven rebounds and four steals.
Williams finished with 19 points and four steals, while tying junior guard
Shane Holmes with a game-high five assists. Holmes collected a game and career-high eight steals, passing her old mark of six set against Stockton on Jan. 23, 2019. Holmes also added five points and two rebounds.
A pair of freshmen, guard/forward
Jalissa Pitts and forward/center
Kayla Newton, also had big games off the boards. Pitts had a game-high 11 rebounds in her second career game, while adding seven points. Newton had six boards, six points and a game-high five blocks.
Freshman guard
Taylor Martin notched four points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals, while freshman center
Ijahnay Johnson collected four points, two rebounds and two blocks.
Ebony Sanders and Jah'nel Oliver paced Penn State-Lehigh Valley with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Sanders added 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Rutgers-Camden shot 25-for-73 (34.2 percent) from the floor, while Penn State-Lehigh Valley shot 18-for-49 (36.7). The Nittany Lions held a slim 41-40 edge off the boards, but Rutgers-Camden forced 32 Penn State-Lehigh Valley turnovers, as opposed to 17 by the Scarlet Raptors.
Rutgers-Camden continues its trip to the Cairn University Tip-Off Mixer on Saturday when it faces the host team at 2 p.m.
