PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers (9-3) freshman guard Mike Rosario (Jersey City, N.J.) shot eight-of-11 from the field, including five-of-seven from behind the arc, to score 24 points in a 78-52 win over NJIT  (0-11) Tuesday evening at the RAC. The Scarlet Knights made 58.3 percent (28-48) of their field goals, while limiting the Highlanders to 37.7 percent (20-53) shooting, to earn their sixth win in the past seven games.

“Once again, we had a great defensive effort and we certainly put it together offensively,” said head coach Fred Hill. “I thought we did a great job sharing the basketball and we knocked down shots.  When you have those two things going down for you, you have performances like you have tonight.”

Rosario, who ranks fourth nationally in scoring among the nation’s freshmen, was joined in double figures by fellow rookie Gregory Echenique (Guatire, Venezuela) and senior co-captain Anthony Farmer (Millville, N.J.). Echenique, the nation’s leading freshman rebounder, shot five-of-six en route to 12 points, while also grabbing seven rebounds. Farmer made four-of-eight field goals to finish with 11 points, while dishing out five assists.

The Scarlet Knights, who lead the BIG EAST and rank second nationally in blocked shots, issued 10 rejections on the evening. Junior center Hamady Ndiaye (Dakar, Senegal), who places third nationally in blocks, had seven, including six in the first half when RU limited the visitors to 32.1 percent (9-28) shooting.

After trailing 5-0 in the opening two minutes, the Scarlet Knights scored nine consecutive points and never looked back. Rutgers went on a 17-0 first half run to establish a commanding 44-20 advantage, before taking a 44-23 lead into the locker room at the midpoint. After intermission, RU ran its advantage to 32 points (61-29) with 12:47 remaining, its largest lead of the contest. The final five minutes were played at an even scoring pace to produce the 78-52 final score.

Rutgers returns to the hardwood to meet consensus No. 1 North Carolina at the Dean Dome in a 7:45 p.m. tip-off on Sunday (Dec. 28). The game will be televised live on Fox SportsNet and in the New York Metropolitan region on MSG+. 

Starting with their meeting on Tobacco Road, Rutgers embarks upon what is likely the most difficult week in college basketball history. After playing at UNC, RU hosts No. 3/3 Pittsburgh (Dec. 31) and then travels to No. 2/2 Connecticut (Jan. 3). No team is believed to have ever played the nation’s top three teams consecutively, especially in a calendar week. Incidentally, the most similar week belongs to Kansas in 1989 when, under the leadership of current UNC coach Roy Williams, the Jayhawks defeated No. 2 LSU?89-83 (Nov. 17), No. 1 UNLV 91-77 (Nov. 22) and No. 25 St. John’s 66-57 (Nov. 24). In 1995, Temple played the nation’s top three teams in a span of four consecutive games versus ranked foes. Under John Chaney, the Owls defeated No. 2 Villanova 62-56 (Dec. 13), lost to No. 12 Cincinnati 49-70 (Dec. 16), beat No. 1 Kansas in overtime 74-66 (Dec. 22), and lost at No. 3 Memphis 58-68 (Dec. 28).

POSTGAME NOTES

Rutgers’ 44-23 halftime lead was its largest advantage at the half since Dec. 6, 2006, when it held a 37-16 edge over New Hampshire.

With its 67-37 win over Bryant on Dec. 20, Rutgers has won consecutive games by 26 or more points for the first time since 2005-06, when it defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 94-56 on Dec. 12 and Maine 91-56 on Dec. 15.

Rutgers shot 0.583 percent from the floor (28-of-48), its highest shooting percentage since Nov. 16 at Delaware, when it recorded a field goal percentage of 0.604 (29-of-48).

The Scarlet Knights recorded a season-high 0.467 three-point field goal percentage (seven-of-15). Their previous high was 0.364 (four-of-11), set twice, most recently against St. Peter’s on Nov. 30.

Rutgers finished with 17 assists as a team, the most since recording 19 against Rider on Dec. 3.

Senior Anthony Farmer (Millville, N.J.) matched his season-high with five assists, previously set at Delaware on Nov. 16. He now has 312 for his career and moves into sixth-place on RU’s all-time assists list.

Sophomore Earl Pettis (Philadelphia, Pa.) recorded four assists, one shy of his career-high, set against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 19, 2007.

Junior Hamady Ndiaye (Dakar, Senegal) blocked seven shots, one shy of his career-high, set twice, most recently against Robert Morris on Nov. 21.

Freshman Mike Rosario (Jersey City, N.J.) tallied 24 points, marking his third game this season with 20 or more points. He came three points shy of his career-high, set against Robert Morris on Nov. 21.

Rosario shot eight-of-11 from the floor, marking a career-high shooting percentage of 0.727. His previous high was 0.714 (five-of-seven), set at Delaware on Nov. 16. He also connected on a career-high three-point field goal percentage of 0.714 (five-of-seven). His previous high was 0.500 (six-of-12), set at Rider on Dec. 3.

Rosario connected on five three pointers, one shy of his career-high, set at Rider on Dec. 3. Entering tonight’s game he ranked eighth in the BIG EAST with 2.5 three pointers a game.

Freshman Patrick Jackson (Brooklyn, N.Y.) played a career-high 12 minutes against the Highlanders. His previous high was nine, set against Bryant on Dec. 20.

Freshman Tomasz Kokosinski (Bergenfield, N.J.) saw his first action of the season, entering the game with 3:07 remaining in the game.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Fred Hill

Game thoughts:

“I liked our defensive energy and our defensive execution. We have played pretty consistent defense all year long. We talked about getting leads and putting people away. Today was the first that we have been able to do that all year.  In the second half, we held them to 17 points and 18.5% shooting. That means that we are playing with energy and we’re executing our game plan defensively…It’s human nature to let up, we talked about not doing and today, and I’m very, very pleased that we were able to go from the start to the finish and execute our defensive game plan, regardless of who was on the floor for us.”

Regarding Rutgers getting off to a good start:

“Defensively, we have been fine and offensively we just made some shots. Mike Rosario knocked down some big shot and Cory Chandler had four assist in the first half.  He (Cory Chandler) really didn’t score a lot of points for us tonight, but he was able to affect the game on the defensive end and he affected the game with distributing the ball. Our big guys did a great job. I thought Greg Echenique and Hamady Ndiaye both passed up some opportunities, when Bryant collapsed in the zone on those guys. They were able to kick it back out to open guys. Mike Rosario was the recipient of being able to knock down a few threes, because we went inside out and got great ball reversal.” 

“I thought offensively we got off to a better start and defensively we played strong through out the game.”

On the best feeling after a game this year:

“We’ve had some very good games, Delaware on the road was a great game and I thought that we played really well.  Certainly, we played well today and we’ve played well in stretches.  For us it’s about continuously getting better.  I really liked our ball movement today, and in the second half I really liked that fact that we gave up open threes.”

NJIT Head Coach Jim Engles

On his team’s performance
“We turned the ball over too much.  Mike Rosario just killed us; he almost outscored us in the first half.  A lot of his shots came off turnovers.  Up until that point I thought we were playing pretty well.  We have a hard time scoring offensively but we were sort of matching them.  We just stopped running stuff and were trying to do too many individual things.”

On halftime adjustments
“That was almost the best we shot percentage-wise all year in the second half.  We shot 44 percent in the second half.  We didn’t take a lot of threes.  We cut our threes in half [from the first half].  And that’s what we have to do.  That needs to be a focal point for us”.

On his team’s 44 game losing streak
“Honestly, when I walked in the locker room [at halftime], we just talked about what we needed to do in the second half.  The guys are upset, obviously.  But if you came to our practices or in our locker room you wouldn’t notice our losing streak.  We’re trying to get better every day; and we are.  And for our next game, we’re able to take some positives from that second half and hopefully be able to compete with Wagner”

NJIT 52

Rutgers 78