12/30/2020 basketball Edit

More on Rutgers Basketball's victory over Purdue on Tuesday night

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

Despite being without the team’s leading scorer Ron Harper Jr. due to an ankle injury, Rutgers was able to pull through and defeat Purdue 81-76 to improve to 7-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play.

“Gutty, gritty win today for us against a program like Purdue who I have a ton of respect for. Matt Painter has done as good a job as anybody building a great program,” Head Coach Steve Pikiell said in his postgame press conference. “They are a very difficult team to prepare for in a couple days and we’ve been a little banged up physically, but I thought our guys came in and played with great energy, made plays down the stretch.”

Montez Mathis ran the show for the Scarlet Knights as the junior guard scored a career high 25 points and shot a perfect 5-5 from the three-point arc. Not only that, but he made nine of his 15 field goal attempts and provided five rebounds as well.

“Montez [Mathis] was spectacular, had just a terrific night,” Pikiell commented. “It’s a good team win tonight, good toughness and now we gotta get these other guys back and healthy and get ready for this next stretch here.”

As a team, Rutgers shot 50 percent and were carried by their impressive three-point shooting as they made 11 of their 21 attempts from beyond the arc. On the flip-side, Purdue nearly matched the Scarlet Knights in terms of field goal percentage as they shot 49 percent. However, the Boilermakers went an abysmal 7-26 from three-point land.

“I thought our guys did a good job finding the open man,” Pikiell said. “The way they defend, they [Purdue] kind of crowd the lane, so they give you those opportunities and we took advantage of it and they went in so it’s always a good day when they’re going in.”

With Harper Jr. and Cliff Omoruyi both out with an injury, it was sort of a baptism by fire for Dean Reiber and Oskar Palmquist as the two freshmen were tasked with playing more significant minutes against a quality team in Purdue. While neither of them lit up the scoreboard, they both earned their playing time and provided enough assistance to help get the Scarlet Knights the victory.

“Any guy that’s injured, especially in this league, you need everybody, but I thought our team responded the way we’re supposed to respond,” Pikiell said. “Next guy was ready to play, tip of the hat, Dean Reiber hasn’t played a lot of minutes, he came in and gave us great minutes. Oskar [Palmquist] came in and made some plays.”

With their next three games all coming against ranked teams in No. 10 Iowa, No. 17 Michigan State, and No. 25 Ohio State, this was a big win for the short-handed Scarlet Knights as they look to continue their spectacular start.