Rutgers’ Kaylene Smikle, Chyna Cornwell earn All-B1G honors

Big Ten honors were announced for women’s basketball on Tuesday and Rutgers had two players included. Kaylene Smikle was named a Second Team All-Big Ten selection and made the All-Freshman Team. She received those honors from both the coaches and media. In addition, junior Chyna Cornwell was named an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection by the media. She also was named the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Rutgers.

Smikle led all Big Ten freshmen and Rutgers with 17.5 points per game and 19.5 points in league play. She had 13 games of scoring 20+ points including against 10 Big Ten foes and led all freshmen with 64 steals. The rookie also averages 4.5 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.7 assists per game. Smikle becomes the first player in program history to be named to both the All-Big Ten Second Team and the All-Freshman team in the same season.

Cornwell leads Rutgers with eight double-doubles including three in Big Ten play. She averages 8.4 rebounds, third in the Big Ten, and is also second in the league in offensive rebounding. The forward also averages 9.2 points on 51.5% shooting this season.

Rutgers finished the regular season 11-18 overall and 5-13 in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights earned the No. 11 seed and will face No. 14 seed Northwestern. They’ll meet on Wednesday, March 1 in Minneapolis at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network. The winner of Rutgers-Northwestern will play No. 6 seed Illinois on Thursday, March 2 at approximately 9:00 p.m. ET. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.

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