The Rutgers men’s basketball team beat the Bryant Bulldogs in the season opener inside the RAC on Thursday night. The Scarlet Knights struggled to get the ball in the hoop early on, but managed to overcome that to beat the Bulldogs by a final score of 73-71.

Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell spoke to the media after the game and despite the win, he wasn’t very happy with his team's performance.

"I’m glad we gutted out a win," Pikiell told the media during post game. "I always give credit to other team and they played their brains out. We had a 16 point lead — they made threes, they made shots, we didn’t wrap up the game the way I liked. We’re young, (it’s) a learning experience and we can have film now to move forward and get better. These guys all did a great job. Geo with a big stop right there at the end, energy right here, Ron did what he always does, Tez with a big stop at the end making them take a real difficult (shot). We’re 1-0 and that’s what I’m most excited about.”

The Scarlet Knights were led by sophomore forward Ron Harper Jr., who manned to score 13 points. This was his 11th time scoring double digits in his Scarlet Knights career."

Although Rutgers had multiple guys in double digits, the offense as a whole struggled mightily. The Scarlet Knights as a team shot under 40-percent from the field and 4-of-19 from beyond the arc. Pikiell admitted that they need to take better shots in the future.

“Our offense — we gotta take care of the ball a little bit more," said Pikiell. "We gotta make some free throws too, gotta make some threes. We’ll watch shot selection, we’ll talk to them about it. I thought we had way too many careless turnovers, but in the first game of the season, those kinds of things happen.

On the flip side, the defense looked solid for most of tonight, holding Bryant to under 40% from the field.

“We did some good things defensively, so we’ll show them the good and the bad," he said. "Well keep improving. One thing I'm very confident (about) — we’ll be a good defensive team and these guys know that. We blocked some shots, we got a ton of steals, so our defense was effective in a lot of ways.”

Next up for Rutgers, they will welcome the Niagara Purple Eagles to the RAC this Sunday for a 1 p.m.