Women’s Basketball Rallies but Falls to Rutgers in WNIT

Sunday, March 23

Piscataway, NJ

2:00 PM

Army West Point

25-8,14-4Patriot

Rutgers

12-19,3-15Big Ten

Army West Point

Rutgers

Women’s Basketball Rallies but Falls to Rutgers in WNIT

March 23, 2025 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

PISCATAWAY, NJ – The Army West Point women's basketball team (25-8) erased an 18-point deficit but fell to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12-19), 71-60 on Sunday afternoon in the WNIT.

Army and Rutgers were battling for a trip to the WNIT Super 16 on the line at Jersey Mike's Arena.

Sophomore Camryn Tade led Army's scoring efforts with 13 points, shooting 5-9 from the floor. Rutgers was paced by JoJo Lacey who scored a game-high 17 points (7-14 shooting).

Rutgers entered today's game on 18 days of rest following the Big Ten tournament.

Reese Ericson kicked off Army's scoring with an early three-pointer, but Rutgers jumped out on Army quickly to take a commanding 18-4 first-quarter lead.

The Black Knights battled back outscoring the Scarlet Knights 13-6 to only trail seven after the first quarter, 24-17 Hastick scored five points, connecting on a three as the first quarter came to an end.

In the second, freshman Sam Tillson made Army's third triple of the afternoon to pull Army within seven, 29-22.

Rutgers went on another run to extend its lead to what was their largest lead of the game, 18 points, leading 40-22 late in the second quarter. Rutgers used an 11-0 scoring run as the Black Knights had a six-minute scoring drought. Army's scoring run ended as Tade knocked down a three-pointer and a jump shot to beat the first-half buzzer by a Fiona Hastick had Army trailing by 13, 40-27 after two quarters of action.

Army forced nine turnovers in the first half but only shot 29.7% from the field in the opening half (11-37), and 21.1% from three (4-19).

Army came out strong in the second half, scoring the first six points of the third quarter, to cut the lead to just seven, 40-33. Trinity Hardy made a jumper and Kya Smith connected on four foul shots to begin the quarter strongly. After a layup by Hastick to cut the deficit to four points, 46-42 it marked a 20-6 run for the Black Knights as they applied the pressure to Rutgers.

Army trailed by 10 late in the third but a jumper by Tillson and a three-pointer by Tade in the final seconds closed Rutgers lead to just five, 52-47 entering the final 10 minutes of play.

Army got back within two points, 58-56 with 5:42 to play after Kya Smith finished a three-point play, making a basket in the post in which she got fouled. Following the three-point play, Rutgers went on a 9-0 run, six points scored by Mya Petticord to push the Scarlet Knights' advantage back up to 11, 67-56 with just a minute to play.

Ericson connected on a three-pointer late, but Army could not muster a miracle comeback in the closing seconds of the game, ultimately falling 71-60.

With the defeat, Army's remarkable season ends with much to be proud of. Army won 25 games, tied for the second most in program history and won its first D-1 postseason game over Bryant in the opening round of the WNIT.