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Rutgers basketball locks up Iowa, tops Hawkeyes

The Rutgers men's basketball team notched a gritty 48-46 victory against Iowa on Wednesday night at Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway.

Ron Harper Jr. made a pair of foul shots with 1.9 seconds left to seal the win for the Scarlet Knights.

With the win, Rutgers moved to 11-6 overall and 5-2 in Big Ten play.

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Rutgers flew around on defense and held down Iowa's offense, who is the third most efficient offensive team in the country, to just 28 percent shooting.

Harper Jr., who finished with 15 points, converted a pair of layups inside the last three minutes, and the defense forced five misses in a row after Iowa took a 43-42 lead.

Iowa's Kris Murray came up with a loose ball with 35.2 seconds left and called a timeout before Patrick McCaffrey netted a driving layup to knot the score at 46-46.

Rutgers then took time off the clock, got the ball into Harper Jr.'s hands, and he was fouled moving toward the rim. The Hawkeyes were in the double-bonus.

Keegan Murray missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

THE GOOD

-- Defense: Rutgers held Iowa to long stretches without a field goal in the opening half. The Scarlet Knights played team defense, communicated well, and made life difficult for the Hawkeyes. Iowa had just 27 points in the first half after averaging 42 points in the opening frame coming in. The Hawkeyes also shot just 29.4% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes (10-for-34) and were 4-for-14 on 3-pointers (28.6). Rutgers scored seven points off of six Iowa turnovers as well. Iowa entered the contest third in offensive efficiency in the nation at 1.176.

The strong defense continued in the second half as Iowa shot 28 percent for the game including 6-for-27 from long range (22%). Shot clock violations were a plenty for Iowa.

Iowa averaged over 80 points per game.

-- Sharing the game: While the shots weren't particularly falling for both teams, Rutgers still shared the ball overall. Rutgers assisted on nine of its 10 field goals in the first half. Paul Mulcahy had five, Geo Baker had two.

-- Bigs played well: Cliff Omoruyi, Dean Reiber, and Ralph Gonzales-Agee all provided sparks for the Scarlet Knights. Omoruyi got into unlucky foul trouble, but Reiber and Gonzales-Agee came off the bench and provided solid minutes. Rutgers' bench outscored Iowa's bench 8-0 before the break.

As a whole, Rutgers out-rebounded Iowa 49-38.

THE BAD

-- Shooting: Rutgers' defense held down a potent Iowa offense in the opening 20 minutes, but couldn't put the ball in the basket itself. Rutgers shot just 33.3% (10-of-30) and was just 2-for-7 from deep (28.6%). However, Rutgers did make a more concerted effort to not settle for mid-range jump shots like it did two games ago against Penn State. The second half was no different. Rutgers finished shooting 31% from the field (18-of-58). Rutgers was 7-for-22 on layups.

-- Turnovers: Rutgers struggled in the first half last time out against Maryland with fouling and turnovers and that was prevalent once again. While Iowa didn't go to the foul line nearly as much as Maryland did, it still had an effect on the rotation. The Scarlet Knights had 10 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

TURNING POINT

-- Cliff Omoruyi flushed down a thunderous dunk that got the crowd to its feet, but he appeared to get a calf cramp on the play. Iowa easily was able to get a layup on the other end with the man advantage.

But Harper Jr. made got four points on two layups to put Rutgers ahead 46-43 with 2:00. The defense stepped up again a couple more times.

Harper Jr. then broke a tie game with two foul shots with 1.9 seconds left.

RUTGERS PLAYER OF THE GAME: C Cliff Omoruyi

Omoruyi ended the game with the Scarlet Knights best +/- at plus-5. He was active offensively and defensively. Omoruyi tallied seven points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks.

RHOOPS PLAYS OF THE GAME

1a. Paul Mulcahy passes to a cutting Ron Harper Jr. for a slam dunk. (See tweet above)

1b. Geo Baker block and layup on the other end. (See tweet below)

ONE THING

RU quarterback Gavin Wimsatt was in the front row of the student section soaking in the game alongside DL Cam'Ron Stewart.

UP NEXT: Rutgers hits the road to face Minnesota on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 12:00 p.m. EST. The game will be shown on Big Ten Network.

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.

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