Rutgers’ Defense Unsettles DePaul

Cappie Pondexter scored 18 of her 27 points in the second half, and No. 9 Rutgers held off 13th-ranked DePaul, 67-57, on Saturday in a Big East Conference game at Piscataway, N.J.

Rutgers (17-3, 9-0) held DePaul (18-5, 5-5) to its lowest point total of the season. The Blue Demons came into the game averaging 79.2 points but had trouble generating offense against the swarming Scarlet Knight defense, which holds opponents to 52.2 points.

Matee Ajavon scored 18 points, and Essence Carson finished with 16 for Rutgers.

Allie Quigley scored 16 points for DePaul.

No. 4 Connecticut 58, West Virginia 50 -- Charde Houston had 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks to lead the Huskies (21-2, 10-0) over the Mountaineers (12-8, 4-5) in a Big East game at Storrs, Conn.

Connecticut won its ninth straight game even though the Huskies shot a season-low 32% from the field.

West Virginia was coming off an 82-70 upset of DePaul but couldn’t climb back from an early 15-point deficit and lost to Connecticut for the 16th straight time.

No. 10 Baylor 81, Oklahoma State 54 -- Sophia Young had 27 points and 12 rebounds and tied the Big 12 Conference record for double-doubles in a career as the Bears (16-4, 6-3) defeated the Cowboys (6-15, 0-10) at Stillwater, Okla.

Young’s double-double was the 54th of her career, tying the senior forward with Angie Welle of Iowa State, whose college career ended in 2002.

No. 11 Oklahoma 88, Missouri 73 -- Courtney Paris recorded her 15th straight double-double with 27 points and 16 rebounds, and the Sooners (19-4, 9-0) ended an 11-game home winning streak for the Tigers (16-5, 6-3) in a Big 12 game at Columbia, Mo.

Paris has 20 double-doubles this season, tying a Big 12 record set by Iowa State’s Welle in 2001-02, in the first 23 games for Oklahoma. The consecutive games streak already is a conference record.

No. 15 Stanford 87, Oregon State 54 -- Candice Wiggins scored 24 points, and the Cardinal (16-5, 11-2) gave Coach Tara VanDerveer her 650th victory by defeating the Beavers (10-10, 4-8) in a Pacific 10 Conference game at Palo Alto.

VanDerveer became the ninth Division I coach to reach 650 wins and also moved to within two victories of her 500th at Stanford.

Utah 75, No. 16 New Mexico 62 -- Shona Thorburn scored 28 points to lead the Utes (15-5, 6-3) to an upset over the Lobos (16-6, 6-3) in a Mountain West Conference game at Salt Lake City.

No. 19 Brigham Young 67, Air Force 44 -- Ambrosia Anderson and Dani Kubik each scored 13 points to help the Cougars (19-1, 9-0) stay undefeated in the Mountain West after defeating the Falcons (11-9, 2-7) at Air Force Academy, Colo.

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Sherry McCracklin, a senior forward for Nevada Las Vegas, was knocked unconscious after hitting her head on the floor in Saturday’s game at Wyoming. McCracklin was hospitalized overnight for observation.