RECAP: Illinois basketball blows out Rutgers
Yikes.
The Rutgers men's basketball team fell to Illinois, 86-51 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill. on Friday night.
The loss drops Rutgers record back to .500 at 4-4 and 0-1 in Big Ten play.
THE GOOD: Game is over.
THE BAD: Non-existent defense and rebounding
A game after Rutgers limited Clemson to 22-percent shooting on 3-pointers (the Tigers entered the contest at 44.1% from deep on the season), Rutgers struggled with its defensive rotation and left the Illini wide open behind the arc.
Rebounding was also an issue. Illinois out-rebounded Rutgers in the opening half 24-13 and scored eight second-chance points to three at the time for the Scarlet Knights. The paint was dominated by the hoe team as it had four blocks in the first half, too.
Illinois had way more energy overall and led 43-23 at halftime.
Much of the continued in the second half. For the game, Illinois shot 48% from the
floor including 12-of-33 on 3-pointers and outrebounded Rutgers 47-33 with six blocks.
TURNING POINT: 11-0 run in the first half by Illinois
Rutgers took an early 3-2 lead thanks to a 3-pointer by Caleb McConnell that eventually went to 5-2, but back-to-back triples by the Illini put them ahead 8-5. Paul Mulcahy made a floater in the paint, but then the home team reeled-off 11-straight points for an 18-7 advantage. The Illini lead ballooned to 16 points at 27-11 as Rutgers couldn't get a stop, rebound, or make shots -- anything really.
RUTGERS PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jalen Miller
The freshman guard came off the bench and immediately stuck to his assignments defensively. He brought a little bit of a spark and was hit with a technical foul as he went and tried to grab the ball out of Trent Frazier's hands after the whistle had blown. It look like he said some things as well.
Nobody was really deserving, however, as it was a bad night for the Scarlet Knights.
RHOOPS PLAY OF THE GAME: Cliff Omouyi's second half slam dunk
ONE THING: Did you hear?
Every time Mulcay touched the ball, the fans in the arena led out loud and long boos. When Mulcahy missed or was blocked, the crowd cheered.
UP NEXT: Rutgers has almost a week off at least for games when it faces highly-ranked Purdue at Jersey Mike's Arena on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7:00 p.m. The game is listed as a sellout and can be seen on TV on BTN.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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