Rutgers received all-around effort, cleaned up turnovers in win over Neb.
It was cold outside, but the Rutgers men's basketball team was fired up on the inside and the Scarlet Knights defeated Nebraska, 76-69, on Monday night at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
The win in front of 5,022 fans in attendance pushed Rutgers to 9-9 overall and 2-6 in the Big Ten Conference.
"I appreciate everyone coming, especially with a late night tonight and minus five degrees outside. I want to congratulate our crowd which was awesome. Our students, even though class doesn't start until tomorrow, were loud. The band and everything, I thought it was a great environment and made the RAC a tough place to play," Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said.
"I'm proud of these guys. We played a terrific basketball team. On both ends of the floor, they're one of the best defensive teams in the league and they have some explosive offensive players and Coach Tim [Miles] does a great job. It was a great team win for us, so I'm really pleased."
The Scarlet Knights received a boost from junior Eugene Omoruyi, who dislocated his left knee for a second time on just Jan. 9. He contributed 25 minutes, eight points, and six rebounds.
Freshman Montez Mathis led the way with a new career-high 20 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Geo Baker settled down and scored 16 points with 13 of them coming in the second half. Redshirt freshman Myles Johnson added his second-ever double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Rutgers totaled 42 points in the paint, 31 bench points, and 17 second chance points. Rutgers also out-rebounded Nebraska 44-34 including 14-9 on the offensive glass and notched five blocks and eight steals.
"It was a great team win. Geo was great in the second half. He turned the ball over twice in the first half. When they threw different looks at us, we did a really good job of attacking and executing," Pikiell said. "These guys are getting better. You saw Myles come into his own today. He's going to be a real good player for us. But we got contributions from everybody. That's what we needed tonight to win the game against a really good Nebraska team."
Rutgers found itself down 31-18 in the first half, but the home team stormed back with a 15-0 run to take a 33-31 lead with under two minutes to go before the break. The Scarlet Knights were plagued with turnovers as they tallied 13 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes -- including seven alone in the Cornhuskers' 13-2 run to take their big lead -- but recorded just two more in the second half.
"We locked in. It's a game of runs and we've been down like that before. We just needed to hang in there and stop turning the ball over. That was our episode when we were really turning the ball over to give them that type of lead. These guys hand tough and they believe in each other," Pikiell said.
"Our defense is getting better, too. I think that's part of it but I thought our offense was good. We got to the free-throw line and we didn't take as many three's. I thought we were in a really good place and if we could have done a better job of not turning the ball over, we could have been in a better place offensively."
Of late, Mathis has looked like a four-star recruit as he's been aggressive driving the hoop and playing stout defense. He's now reached double figure sin scoring for the seventh time this season and fifth time in the last six games. Since becoming a starter 10 games ago, he's shot 47 percent (40-of-86) and has score 15 points-per-game in the last six contests.
"I like in the huddle when Montez says to me 'Coach, he can't guard me'. I like that feedback and you can tell (the team is) growing in their basketball and growing in their effort.
With four fouls, Johnson scored eight of the final 14 points for Rutgers as well.
"He's got a really good feel. He's a good player," Pikiell said. "He's getting more and more confident. I liked him on both ends of the floor today. He's a really good passer, too. You saw that tonight. He's got a good feel around the basket and I thought he was aggressive to score and we needed all of his points. I thought his defense was good and those were tough guys to guard."
