It wasn't pretty at times, but the Rutgers men's basketball team came up clutch to edge Northwestern on the road, 59-56, on Wednesday night. It is the second victory in Big Ten play away from Piscataway which has never been done in one season.
After Northwestern hit a 3-pointer to cut Rutgers' advantage to 53-50, Rutgers ran a set play for a one-on-one opportunity in the post for Eugene Omoruyi. He got the ball on the block, was patient, and stepped through toward the middle for a bucket. The Wildcats would go on to nail another shot from deep, but after a timeout, Rutgers big man Myles Johnson converted a tough layup under the basket and was fouled.
Clinging to a one point, 57-56 lead with 18.2 seconds left, Rutgers was hit a five second call trying to inbound the ball. On the ensuring Wildcats possession, the Scarlet Knights would clamp down on the paint and block a shot. Ron Harper Jr. would grab the long rebound for Rutgers and race up court. He was stripped however with nine seconds remaining. He should have tried to dribble it around and take more time off, but he didn't.
Nonetheless, Omoruyi was then fouled and he hit two free throws to put Rutgers up three. The Scarlet Knights have been known to be a poor foul shooting team, but came up big late at the line.
With the win, the Scarlet Knights improved to 12-12 overall and 5-9 in the Big Ten.
Check out more about the game below...
THE GOOD: - Despite falling in the aforementioned hole and playing sloppily, Rutgers came back to take its first lead at 14-13 at the 7:59 mark in the first half on a Geo Baker 3-pointers, which was the Scarlet Knights’ first made triple of the game.
- Trailing by one, Rutgers went on a 10-1 run to take a 49-41 lead with 6:13 remaining.
- Rebounding, fastbreak points, and points in the paint were all in Rutgers' favor against Northwestern. The Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Wildcats, 44-30, including 12-5 on the offensive glass.
- Rutgers switched up its defenses and it proved to be effective. The Scarlet Knights utilized both full-court pressure and zone throughout the game. Rutgers also had active hands and forced the Wildcats into a couple scoring droughts.
- Geo Baker showed some shake and bake ability and got to the rim which was a good sight to see. He was the first player on both sides to reach double figures. He and Montez Mathis tallied 12 points while Omoruyi had 11.
- As mentioned, Rutgers was clutch when it mattered most at the line and got some key buckets near the end.
THE BAD: - Rutgers was sloppy in the early going -- again -- and had four turnovers on its first four trips up the floor. It also committed three fouls in less than three minutes and fell behind 6-0. The Scarlet Knights recorded seven turnovers within the first 10 minutes and Northwestern cashed in, scoring 11 of its 13 points at the time off said turnovers for NW. Rutgers finished with 16 turnovers.
- Shooting from behind the arc wasn’t the best in the first half for both teams and they were a combined 2-of-18. Rutgers was 1-for-10 on 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, 1-for-4 at the free-throw line, and shot 35 percent from the field. Northwestern was no better however also shooting 35 percent. If you want to get specific, it was 34.5-34.6 percent. For the game, Rutgers shot 18 percent from deep.
OTHER: - Guess you can count this as a “bad”, but on the BTN broadcast, the announcers mentioned that Caleb McConnell became ill and didn’t participate in the shootout. Nonetheless, he checked in about seven minutes into the contest. McConnell had five huge points on two straight possessions during a stretch in the second half. Eugene Omoruyi also got banged up again in the first half and appeared to hurt his nose and it started bleeding after an accidental collision. He had a gause in it for the next few minutes.
UP NEXT: Rutgers returns home to the RAC after a two-game road trip to play Iowa on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. The game will be shown live on FS1.
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