Playing without the team’s leader scorer, Ron Harper Jr., who was out with an ankle injury suffered recently in practice, Montez Mathis knew he had to step up to the plate and he delivered a home run and then some in No. 14 Rutgers' 81-76 win over Purdue at the RAC on Tuesday night.
Mathis netted a career-high 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting including 5-for-5 on 3-pointers. The nine buckets overall and five triples are both the most he's had in a game at Rutgers thus far for the junior.
“I was just going out there and playing. I knew we were down a couple guys so it was next man up mentality. I just did whatever it took for my team to get the win,” Mathis said.
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Mathis normally does his best work offensively by driving to the hoop, but his perfect night from behind the arc wasn’t by accident.
“I feel like I put a lot of work in on my 3-point shot every day. I just put the work in,” Mathis said. “I just feel confident with myself with makes or misses, and as long as I'm putting on work and I could live with the results.”
When Rutgers needs a bucket, Mathis has been known to do just that during his time as a Scarlet Knight. When Purdue when on a 12-2 at the beginning of the second half, it was Mathis who came up with a key layup and he scored 16 of his 25 points after the break.
“Montez was spectacular,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said. “Had a terrific night.”
"We talked about how Mathis was streaky and don’t let him going," added Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "...Mathis is a good player. He’s an experienced player and a guy that can get to the rim and make plays, can bulldog his way in there. When he’s hot, he can knock down some shots."
Through eight games, Mathis is second on the team with 15.6 points per game and he has scored in double figures seven times all while playing tight defense on the other end of the court.
“Montez has been as consistent a guy as there is on our team,” Pikiell said. “He comes to practice every day and he's had really good, consistent practices too. Last year he was up and down in practice a little bit and he's been very consistent and he's in great shape physically. He's been through this league, and he really improved his jumper. He put the time in. He's in the gym. He really had a great offseason. He found a gym when he was home. We're thankful to have a gym that's available 24 hours and he certainly takes advantage of that. He loves it. You could see the improvements in their games and that's because of the work that they've done to get to get better. We need nights like this from Montez. He can score it, can get to the rim and can get fouled and he can post it. He can do a lot of things and I think you saw a little bit of everything tonight.”
As a freshman and sophomore, Mathis shot 24 percent and 30 percent on 3-pointers, respectively, but now he’s at 39.4 percent.
“We've seen him put in the work every day before practice, after practice. You see us kicking it out to him and we expect the ball to go in when he shoots it,” fellow guard Geo Baker said. “I feel like our whole team worked really hard in the offseason and now you're seeing the results.”
As a team, Rutgers, who has not been known to shoot the ball particularly well, 11-of-21 shots from deep against Purdue and the 11 makes are the most for the Scarlet Knights in Big Ten Conference play since also netting 11 against Iowa in March of 2019.
“We've improved a lot and credit to our guys that have been in the gym. I thought we had good looks and I thought our guys did a good job finding the open man,” Pikiell said. “The way (Purdue) defends they crowd the lane so they give us opportunities, and we took advantage of it and they went in. So its a good day when they go in.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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