12/9/2020 basketball Edit

More on Rutgers Basketball's 79-69 victory over Syracuse

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

Rutgers was able to move to 4-0 following a 79-69 victory over Syracuse and secured their first win over the Orange since Jan. 29, 2003.

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The Stalwarts Came Up Big

While the point has probably been beaten to death by now, not enough can be said about how well Head Coach Steve Pikiell and co. have grown and developed much of Rutgers’ current roster. Despite playing without the team’s leader Geo Baker, guys like Ron Harper Jr. and Jacob Young have so far stepped up big time to help fill the void.

“I thought our team brought some great energy, I loved our bench today,” Pikiell said in his postgame press conference. “Obviously Syracuse is a great program, they have really good players and a hall of fame coach so a ton of respect to Syracuse I knew how hard this game would be.”

Whether it was 26 points from Harper Jr., 18 from Young, or 19 from Montez Mathis, each member of the Scarlet Knights’ core showed out in this game. Even Myles Johnson came up huge with a double-double that helped seal the win.

The Freshmen Struggle

In a game like this you have to take the good with the bad and in this instance the bad comes in the form of the showing from Rutgers’ freshmen.

“Anytime you can beat a program like Syracuse it’s a good step for your program,” Pikiell continued. “We knew we’d be tested tonight and we were.”

While it is understandable there will be growing pains considering this is just their fourth ever collegiate basketball game, it would have been nice to see Cliff Omoruyi, Mawot Mag, Oskar Palmquist and Dean Reiber play a little bit more of a factor in the offense considering the four combined for a total of zero points.

Great Play Down The Stretch

Despite not having a great showing defensively for most of the game, Rutgers was eventually able to lock in and finished the game on a 17-4 run after falling behind 65-62 with 5:40 left to play.

“I loved our last five and a half minutes on the defensive end, I thought we set some goals today to do a great job on the backboards and we did that,” Pikiell said. “Everyone contributed and really helped, it was a real team win today and so they earned a good day off tomorrow.”

While a team like Syracuse might not match up to the gauntlet the Scarlet Knights will face once Big Ten play starts, it is an encouraging sign to see they have what it takes to step up and win a game against a quality opponent. And, it does not hurt when it comes against a former Big East rival whom they lost 13 straight against.

Rutgers will look to make it 5-0 when they begin their Big Ten schedule against Maryland at the Xfinity Center on Monday, Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. (ET) on BTN.