The gravity of Monday night's victory wasn't lost on junior guard Shay Burnett. 

The Elon University women's basketball team recorded one of the biggest victories of its Division I era, toppling visiting Rutgers University 66-54 at Alumni Gym.

Burnett had 20 points, and senior guard Lauren Brown added 13. 

"We definitely made history beating Rutgers," Burnett said. "They are a Big Ten school. They expected to come in here and for us to roll over so they could just win. It's definitely a confidence booster that we did win, and we won by 12."

Rutgers, which went 19-15 last year, has been to two Final Fours under Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer. She's the fourth-winningest coach in collegiate women's basketball history and has been to four Final Fours in her 45 seasons. 

Elon wasn't fazed. The Phoenix led 35-20 at halftime and built a 27-point lead early in the second half.

The Scarlet Knights scored just five points in the second quarter and shot just 12.5 percent in the period.

"We did a good job of focusing in on our defensive plan and on being super intense on the defensive end," Brown said. "We were making sure we were packing it in and making them shoot outside shots. Once we were able to get defensive stops, we were able to get that momentum."

It's the first victory against a Big Ten team in Elon's program history.

Elon kept its composure during an 18-2 run by Rutgers. Burnett and Brown each made 3-pointers midway through the fourth quarter to eliminate the threat and hold on for Elon's first victory of the season.

The Phoenix is 1-1, and now looks forward to a weekend of Preseason WNIT play.

"I'm really pleased with our execution of the defensive game plan," said Elon head coach Charlotte Smith. "We did a really good job of taking away penetration. We knew they were a really good penetrating team. We were trying to eliminate the inside game by digging in the post and forcing them out.

"We implemented the game plan to perfection in terms of making them a jump-shooting team."

Junior guard Shrita Parker led Rutgers with 15 points.