No. 22/22 MSU Women Battle to 70-60 Road Win Over Rutgers

Piscataway, N.J. - No. 22/22 Michigan State women's basketball earned its first Big Ten road win of the season with a hard-fought, 70-60, win against Rutgers Wednesday night at Jersey Mike's Arena.

The Spartans have now won two-straight games, improving to 14-2 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten contests. Rutgers falls to 8-10 overall and 0-7 in league contests. Wednesday was MSU's fourth-straight win at Piscataway in the all-time series.

Michigan State had three players in double figures led by 12 points each by junior guard Emma Shumate and graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault. Shumate netted a season-high tying four 3-pointers to match her MSU career high which she also had against DePaul on Dec. 8.

Shumate and Ayrault not only shared top scoring honors, but they did so on the eve of their birthdays, as Ayrault and Shumate also share their birthday of January 16 on Thursday.

Junior forward Grace VanSlooten added 11 points for the Spartans. MSU's bench came up big, out-scoring the Rutgers bench, 34-8. Ayrault also led the team in rebounds with nine.

Rutgers was led by Destiny Adams who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Spartan defense was able to convert 22 Rutgers turnovers to 26 points.

The game moved at a fast pace early on with MSU taking an early 16-11 lead after a Shumate triple at the 4:26 mark. Shumate hit three straight 3-pointers to take a 19-11 advantage. Michigan State was hitting from long range in the first quarter making five in the first 10 minutes. The Spartans were able to keep freshman sensation Kiyomi McMiller off the scoreboard in the first quarter, leading 22-20 at the break.

In the second quarter, the Scarlet Knights took their first lead of the game at 24-22 after a pair of Adams free throws. Rutgers scored the first eight points of the second quarter, leading to an MSU timeout. The Spartans tied the score after a VanSlooten bucket, and eventually re-took the lead after a Theryn Hallock steal and a score. Both teams went cold toward the end of the quarter and the half ended knotted at 33-33. Shumate led all scorers with 12 points.

MSU forced three turnovers in under two minutes to take a slight 43-40 lead midway through the third period. The Spartans held the Scarlet Knights without a field goal for over four minutes. MSU out-scored Rutgers, 22-13, in the period to create a little separation, leading 55-46, heading into the fourth quarter.

The Spartans took the first double-digit lead after a basket by graduate guard Nyla Hampton to open the fourth quarter, 57-46. MSU maintained a double-digit lead for much of the fourth quarter, due in part of the strong play of Ayrault. She scored six of her 12 points in the final 10 minutes of the game to secure the Victory for MSU.

Michigan State will close out the road swing at Illinois on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m. ET.

Michigan State Women's Basketball Post-Game Notes
• No. 22/22 Michigan State moved to 14-3 overall and 4-2 in B1G action with Wednesday's win . . . MSU is now 2-2 overall in true road games and 5-3 in all games away from home (3-1 on neutral courts) . . . Wednesday was the Spartans' first B1G road win after losing their previous two (at No. 8/8 Maryland, 12/29/24; at RV/RV Nebraska, 1/8/24).

• Wednesday was MSU's eighth night game of the season and the Spartans are now 7-1 at night, with last week's loss at Nebraska coming as Michigan State's first and lone night loss.

• MSU has now won five in a row over Rutgers and now lead the all-time series, 11-6 . . . additionally, the Spartans have won four-straight in Piscataway on the way to now leading the series in games on the Scarlet Knights' home court, 5-3.

• Michigan State improved to 12-1 when scoring 70 or more points.

• The Spartans are now 9-0 when holding the opponent to 60 or fewer points as part of 12-0 when limiting the opposition under 70.

• Michigan State's defense forced 22 Rutgers turnovers, as MSU registered its 14th game this season forcing 20+ opponent turnovers . . . the Spartans are now 12-2 when forcing 20 or more turnovers . . . MSU only had 13 turnovers, to move to 12-2 when having fewer turnovers than its opponents.

• The MSU defense also held Rutgers leading scorer Kiyomi McMiller to just 13 points, not only 7.8 points below her season average of 20.8 ppg coming into the game, but also her fewest in a Big Ten game in addition to her fewest since game two of the season, for her third-lowest outing of the season.

• Michigan State made six 3-pointers compared to four treys for Rutgers, and MSU improved to 10-1 when making more 3-pointers than the opposition.

• The Spartan bench outscored their Scarlet Knight counterparts by a whopping 34-8 (+26) advantage, improving to 13-1 when outscoring the opponent's bench . . . the 26-point advantage is the largest in a B1G game this season and tied for the third-largest of the year, behind +38 (42-4) vs. Eastern Michigan (11/11/24) and +31 (48-17) vs. Oakland (11/5/24), while matching +26 (37-11) vs. Eastern Kentucky (11/14/24) . . . Wednesday's +26 advantage is the sixth game with +20 or more bench-point advantage.

• The Spartans were led by the top scoring honors of a pair of Spartans on their birthday eve, as graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault and junior guard Emma Shumate netted 12 points apiece to share leading scoring accolades and the Spartan duo share their birthday of January 16 on Thursday.

• Michigan State started with the same starting line-up for the fourth-straight game with graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault, graduate guard Jaddan Simmons, senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate, junior guard Theryn Hallock and freshman center Ines Sotelo on the court for the opening tip . . . it was Sotelo's fourth start in a row after coming off the bench in the previous 13 games . . . the starting line-up MSU opened with was one of six different starting fives that the Spartans have utilized this season.

• Junior guard Emma Shumate tied her season-high with 12 points and matched her MSU career-high with four 3-pointers, with both marks tying her outing vs. DePaul (12/8/24) . . . the 12 points was Shumate's second game in double-figures, joining the DePaul game.

• Shumate's four 3-pointers was her third game in a row with multiple triples, after not doing so in the previous four games, also making a pair of triples last two games, at Nebraska (1/8/25) and vs. Washington (1/12/25) . . . it was Shumate's third spurt of consecutive games with two or more treys on the season, joining three in a row (four vs. DePaul, 12/8/24; two vs. Iowa, 12/15/24; two vs. Montana (12/19/24) . . . overall it was Shumate's eighth game this season with multiple triples.

• The 12 points was the third-straight game that Shumate tied or topped her B1G scoring, and she has 26 points in her last three games after six at Nebraska and eight vs. Washington.

• Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault tallied 12 points and nine rebounds, marking the third-straight game that she was one board shy of a double-double, posting nine rebounds for the third game in a row.

• With 12 points, Ayrault has registered double-digits in the scoring column in all 16 games played this season, after missing the Detroit Mercy game (12/20/24) with an injury . . . Ayrault has posted double-figures in the last 29 games in a row, past of doing so in 40 of her last 45 games played since the start of the 2023-24 season . . . overall, the Spartan has double-digits in her 56th career game . . . MSU improved to 42-14 when Ayrault scores 10+ points.

• The nine rebounds was Ayrault's fifth-straight contest with five or more boards as part of the 13th time this season, including her 11th game with seven or more rebounds, highlighted by nine or more in the last five games.

• Over her last five games, Ayrault is averaging 16.0 points and 9.8 rebounds per game with 80 points and 49 rebounds over that stretch . . . over her last 13 games played, Ayrault is now 17.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, with 229 points and 111 rebounds over that span.

• Ayrault's 12 points Wednesday gives her 1,174 points for her career, holding at No. 22 on MSU's career scoring list, and needing just seven more points to tie Rene Haynes (2003-07) at No. 21 with 1,181 points, and needing just eight more points to crack the Top 20, as Victoria Lucas Perry (2003-07) holds the No. 20 spot with 1,182 points.

• With nine rebounds, Ayrault now has 656 career rebounds, moving up to No. 17 on MSU's career rebounding list, passing Nanette Gibson (1978-81) with 648 rebounds and Aisha Jefferson (2005-2010) with 652 rebounds . . . Ayrault is 13 rebounds away from the No. 16 spot, held by Kelli Roehrig with 669 boards.

• Wednesday was Ayrault's 124th career game played, needing just three more to crack the Spartans' Top 20 career games played list, held by former teammate Nia Hollie (2016-20) and former assistant coach Kristin Haynie (2001-05), with 127 career games played.

• Ayrault has made at least one 3-pointer in her last 13 games played as part of the 14th time in her 16 games played this season, with the two games being held without a make from distance coming in the first three games, doing so in games one and three of the year.

• The one triple in Wednesday's game bumps Ayrault's career total to 108 3-pointers, holding at No. 18 on MSU's career 3-pointers list, three shy of tying Rene Haynes (2003-07) at No. 17 with 111 treys.

• Ayrault added two blocks, as she now has 156 career rejections, holding at No. 3 on the Spartans' career blocks list.

• Junior forward Grace VanSlooten tallied 11 points off the bench to register her 14th game in double-digit scoring in playing 16 of the 17 contests this season, missing the Eastern Michigan game (11/11/24) due to illness . . . the junior forward has posted double-figures in the scoring column 66 times out of 79 career games, logging double-digits in 52 games while at Oregon.

• VanSlooten posted her 14th game with five or more rebounds by logging six boards Wednesday.

• Senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate tallied a game-high five assists, topping her season-high for helpers and one shy of her career-best of six, done four times in her career, with the last time coming against Rutgers in last season's meeting (2/24/24).

• After never leading MSU in assists in her Spartan career for her previous 42 games in the Green & White, Tate has led the Spartans in assists in three of the last six games played, and Wednesday's assist-topping outing was the first in which Michigan State won, as her previous two times came in MSU's two losses in back-to-back games, vs. Alabama (12/20/24) and at Maryland (12/29/24).

• The five assists was Tate's ninth game this season with multiple helpers, including her seventh with three or more.

• Tate also swatted a season-high two blocks.

• Tate also topped MSU is steals with three swipes, for her second-straight game with multiple steals as part of her 10th game this season.

• Graduate guard Nyla Hampton added two blocks for her second game with multiple swats, with both outings coming on the road, joining her career-high four blocks at Maryland (12/29/24).

• Hampton added six points off the bench to log her ninth game with five or more points.

• With three assists, Hampton also notched her eighth game with three or more helpers this season.

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Team Stats

Emma Shumate

Julia Ayrault

Grace VanSlooten

Jaddan Simmons

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Theryn Hallock

Nyla Hampton

Emma Shumate

Jaddan Simmons

Jocelyn Tate

Grace VanSlooten