PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer is two wins away from joining an exclusive club.

Epiphanny Prince scored 18 points, Matee Ajavon added 15 and No. 5 Rutgers overcame an 8-minute scoreless drought to beat No. 14 Notre Dame, 57-51, last night and give Stringer her 798th career win.

The Hall of Fame coach is aiming to become just the third women's basketball coach to win 800 games, joining Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt. Rutgers travels to Providence on Saturday before hosting DePaul next Wednesday.

"Honestly, I haven't even started thinking about it yet," Stringer said. "I didn't really know until I saw a fan in the stands with a card saying 800."

Last night's game might not have been the most artistic of her career, but the Scarlet Knights still walked away with a victory.

"We could have played a better game," Ajavon said. "In the end we just brought it together."

Notre Dame (20-6, 8-4 Big East), which is known for its potent offense that averages nearly 80 points, played stellar defense.

"We were getting the looks, we weren't capitalizing on it," Ajavon said. "Credit Notre Dame's defense."

The Irish held Rutgers without a field goal for nearly 11 minutes spanning halftime as the Scarlet Knights (21-4, 11-1) were stymied by Notre Dame's zone defense.

Kia Vaughn, who finished with 14 points, finally broke the offensive drought with a putback 4 1/2 minutes into the second half that cut Rutgers' deficit to 28-26. That basket started a 17-5 run over the next 7 minutes for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers led 41-33 with 8:49 left and Notre Dame got closer than four points the rest of the game.

"We got really easy layups," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "We were happy we were getting those shots, we just couldn't make them."

Charel Allen scored 18 points and Lindsay Schrader added 10 for the Irish.

Rutgers hadn't played at home since beating top-ranked Connecticut, 73-71, on Feb. 5. The Scarlet Knights have won 12 straight games at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

The Scarlet Knights rebounded from their controversial loss at No. 3 Tennessee with a 21-point win over South Florida on Saturday. Rutgers, which remained fifth in the poll this week, received eight first-place votes — the most ever for the Scarlet Knights.

No. 13 West Virginia 82, Cincinnati 63: Meg Bulger scored 20 points to lead four teammates in double figures and the Mountaineers (21-4, 10-2 Big East) made a season-high 13 3-pointers to roll past the Bearcats (11-14, 2-11), who tied their school record by making 13 3-pointers at Cincinnati.

No. 18 Utah 82, BYU 45: Morgan Warburton scored 24 points, Leilani Mitchell had 16 points and 12 assists , and the host Utes (22-3, 11-0 Mountain West) used a 30-5 second-half run to roll past the Cougars (12-11, 6-5) at Salt Lake City for their 17th consecutive victory.

Providence 62, No. 22 Syracuse 58: Freshman Mi-Khida Hankins went 4-for-4 from the free throw line over the last 11 seconds and scored a career-high 22 points as the Friars (12-13, 2-10 Big East) snapped an eight-game losing streak with a victory over the Orange (19-6, 7-5) at Providence, R.I.

RANKED MEN

No. 13 Connecticut 65, DePaul 60: Hasheem Thabeet had 16 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocked shots and the Huskies (21-5, 10-3 Big East) rallied from a 53-40 deficit with 10 minutes left by outscoring the Blue Demons (10-15, 5-8) 25-7 the rest of the way at Hartford, Conn., for their 10th straight victory.

No. 15 Indiana 77, No. 14 Purdue 68: Eric Gordon scored 22 points, and D.J. White, playing despite a sprained left knee, had 19 points and 15 rebounds as the Hoosiers (22-4, 11-2 Big Ten) ended the Boilermakers' (21-6, 12-2) 11-game winning streak with a victory at Bloomington, Ind.

Bradley 72, No. 16 Drake 71: Jeremy Crouch scored 23 points, including a jumper just inside the 3-point line with 11 seconds left to cap a 12-2 run that helped the Braves (16-12, 9-7 Missouri Valley Conference) hand the Bulldogs (23-3, 14-2) their first home loss of the season at Des Moines, Iowa.