Arella Guirantes joining the Rutgers triple-double club a “remarkable accomplishment” says Tasha Pointer

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Arella Guirantes
Guirantes shoots a free throw against Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon at the RAC (Photo: Martin Soaries / Basketball Society)

Rutgers senior Arella Guirantes has the juice right now.

The preseason co-Big Ten Player of the Year was just named Big Ten Player of the Week along with being named the ESPN National Player of the Week.

In their 84-41 win against Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, Guirantes became the third player in program history to record a triple-double. She pulled down her 10th rebound late in the fourth quarter to accompany her 17 points and 11 assists.

It’s the fifth triple-double recorded across the country this season and the first for Rutgers since Khadijah Rushdan’s in February 2011.

The first player to record a triple-double for the program was Tasha Pointer, the point guard of the 2000 Final Four team and now the head women’s coach at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Pointer had this to say about Guirantes joining the triple-double club:

Achieveing a triple-double is a remarkable accomplishment. Arella has displayed that she can influence and impact a game in a variety of ways – scoring, rebounding, and making teammates better with assists! When your best player displays that she will do whatever it takes for the team to be successful that is a beautiful thing.

Pointer was the 1998 Big East Rookie of the Year and led the Big East in assists twice. She left Rutgers as the program’s all-time leader, men’s or women’s, in assists and steals, and still holds the NCAA Tournament single-game assist record with 18 against Stephen F. Austin in 2001.

Pointer’s last triple-double came against Georgetown in February 2001, and she recalled her first triple-double game against Providence in January.

She tallied 18 points, 14 assists, and 11 rebounds in a win at Providence.

Pointer recalled that Coach Stringer had instructed, as a challenge, that the team could only run three plays in the entire game. Pointer was taken out of the game at one point for breaking protocol.

When the game was over she had no idea that she had a triple-double.

Arella and her teammates were very aware of her being one rebound away at the end of Wednesday’s game, and it showed as they celebrated when it happened.

I know that I can’t get where I need to be alone. I need all 13 of these girls on my side and I gotta show them first that I’m on their side.

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