Rutgers 60, USF 52 Game Book | Season Stats | BIG EAST Stats If you weren't there ... The University of South Florida women's basketball team got 33 points and 10 rebounds from Senior Jessica Lawson, but fell to Rutgers, 60-52. The Bulls led the Scarlet Knights at halftime, 23-20, but Rutgers' full-court press defense forced USF into 18 turnovers, and the Bulls were outscored 40-29 in the second half. Next up for USF is a trip to Wilwaukee, Wis. to take on Marquette on Tuesday Feb. 9 at 9 p.m.   1 2 OT F Rutgers  20 40  -- 60  USF  23 29 -- 52  Scoring Leaders Player FG-A 3FG-A FT-A TP Rutgers- Rushdan 5-8 0-1 7-11 17 USF - Lawson 11-14 0-0 11-12 33  Rebounding Leaders Player Offensive Defensive Totals Rutgers- Lee 2 5 7 USF - Lawson 1 9 10  Misc. Leaders  Player Steals Assists Blocks Rutgers- Ray 4 3 0 USF - Lawson 3 0 2 • USF on Facebook | @USFAthletics on Twitter Chat Transcript | Postgame Quotes Postgame Video: Jose Fernandez | Jessica Lawson

TAMPA - The University of South Florida women's basketball team had its short two-game winning streak snapped this afternoon as Rutgers handed the Bulls a hard-fought 60-52 loss in front of 1,309 fans at the USF Sun Dome.

Jessica Lawson had a career outing pouring in a career-best 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 34 minutes of action. In addition, the sixth-year senior recorded three steals and two blocked shots in the loss. It was her 12^th double-double of the year, and her fifth straight. It was also the 22^nd double-double of her career at USF and the 23^rd of her collegiate career dating back to her time at California.

USF (13-9, 4-5 BIG EAST) jumped out to a fast start looking like it was going to hand Rutgers its fourth straight loss. The Bulls would score 14 of the first 17 points of the game to post their biggest lead of the contest, 11 points, 14-3, with 13:19 left in the half. During that stretch, Lawson and KaNeisha Saunders would account for four and five points respectively of USF's 14 points.   

The Scarlet Knights (13-10, 5-4 BIG EAST) would close the gap outscoring the Bulls 17-9 during the rest of the first stanza, to cut the USF lead to three points at the break, 23-20. Rutgers would get the lead to four points three times during that final 13 minute stretch before getting it to three on a Myia McCurdy jumper with 58 seconds left in the half.

In the second half, both team's came out exchanging blows like you would expect two team's would while trying to get over the .500 mark and looking to start off the second half of the BIG EAST season off on the right foot.

USF tried to pull away early on, but could never get its lead to more than four points, doing so three times in the first 4:30 of the second half. The final of those three margins came on a Lawson lay-up with 15:32 left in the game making the score 29-25.

Both teams would go back and forth until Rutgers took its first lead, 36-35, on a lay-up by Khadijah Rushdan with 10:01 left in the contest. That would be the Scarlet Knights' first lead since a 3-2 advantage with 18:02 on the clock in the first half.

USF would only regain the lead twice over the next six-plus minutes getting up by as much as two points, 45-43, with 5:47 left in the game on two Lawson free throws.

Rutgers, however, would prove to be too much down the stretch pulling away after going 8-10 from the free throw line in the final 54 seconds of the contest.

On the afternoon, neither team shot well from the field with the Scarlet Knights hit for 38.3 percent (18-47) of their shots from the floor, while the Bulls were just 17-51 (33.3 percent) from the field.

Both teams particularly struggled from behind the three-point arc as Rutgers was 1-5 (20.0 percent) from three-point land, and USF 1-16 (6.3 percent).

The Scarlet Knight bench also stepped up big in the win outscoring the Bulls' reserves 17-1.

In addition to Lawson's 33 points being a career-high, it was also USF's first 30-point outing since Janae Stokes poured in 39 points against Grambling on Dec. 18, 2009. It was also the 13^th best single game scoring performance in school history.

Saunders scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists in 32 minutes before fouling out with 4:28 left in the game.

The Bulls will now start a three-game road stretch beginning on Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. (ET) at Marquette. That game will be televised live on CBS College Sports (Bright House Networks Digital channel 807; Direct TV channel 613; Dish Network channel 152). USF will also face Seton Hall on Feb. 13 (2 p.m.) and Georgetown on Feb. 17 (8 p.m.) during the three-game span.