Rutgers University
West Virginia
Rutgers Falls at WVU 84-60
Jan 14 | Men's Basketball
Morgantown, W.Va. – Junior wing Dane Miller (Rochester, N.Y.) had his second consecutive double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, but it was not enough as Rutgers (10-8, 2-3) dropped an 84-60 decision to West Virginia (13-5, 4-2) Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum. The Scarlet Knights out-scored the Mountaineers after the break, but were unable to overcome a 48-22 halftime deficit.
Freshman point guard Myles Mack (Paterson, N.J.) joined Miller in double digits with 15 points, while fellow rookie guard Eli Carter (Paterson, N.J.) and junior forward Austin Johnson (Elkins Park, Pa.) both chipped in with six points.
Rutgers jumped out to an early 4-3 lead but the home squad responded with an 11-0 run and never looked back.
After trailing by as many as 29 points early in the second half, the Scarlet Knights reduced the deficit to 16 (64-48) points with just over 10 minutes to go courtesy of a 16-3 run, but would get no closer.
Rutgers shot 39.7 percent (23-58), while the host Mountaineers connected on 46.6 percent (27-58) of their field goal attempts. WVU out-rebounded RU by a 45-36 margin and took 21 more free throws than the Scarlet Knights, depositing 23-of-41 attempts from the charity stripe. Rutgers was 11-of-20 at the line.
RU was victimized by a season-high 19 turnovers, including 11 in the first half.
The Scarlet Knights return to the hardwood to host Notre Dame in a 9 p.m. tip-off at the RAC Monday (Jan. 16) night. The game will be televised live nationally on ESPNU.
POSTGAME NOTES
- The double-double (12 points, 13 rebounds) marked the eighth of Miller’s career and his third this season. It was also his second consecutive, after an 11 point, 12 rebounds performance at Pittsburgh.
- Miller had one block to give him 116 for his career, providing him sole possession of seventh place on the RU all-time blocks list.
- Miller had a season-high five assists. It marked the eight time in his career he had five or more helpers in a game.
- Miller led Rutgers in rebounding for the seventh time this season and the 32nd time in his career.
- Mack led Rutgers in scoring for the fourth time this season.
- Sophomore Mike Poole (Rosedale, N.Y.) grabbed a season-high seven rebounds.
- Guard Charlie Rigoglioso (Wayne, N.J.) scored a fast break layup in the final minutes. The two points marked the first of the season for Rigoglioso and the first points scored this season by a Rutgers senior.
- Redshirt freshman forward Kadeem Jack (Queens, N.Y.), who missed the first 13 games of the season after preseason foot surgery, played a career-high 13 minutes and had two blocks.
- Carter’s six points snapped a string of 11 straight games in double figures. It marked his lowest scoring output since posting three points versus Richmond in Cancun on November 23.
- The 19 turnovers by Rutgers was a season-high.
- The Rutgers’ bench out-scored West Virginia’s bench by a 32-11 margin. The Mountaineers did not register a single fast break point, while RU generated 12.
- The crowd of 13,820 marked the largest Rutgers has played before this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins
On why he called the early timeout in the second half:
We were up 26 at Rutgers and they came up and went on a 10-0 run. They were on a 6-0 run then. What frustrates me more than anything is we really try to teach them how to play the game the right way. When you dribble it and not have your head up and not seeing open teammates, that is not seeing and not playing the right way. Which is why I sometimes get frustrated with the other facet of the game because you try to teach them to do the right thing and they should be rewarded for doing the right thing. We have 13 more games to go and you don’t want to get into bad habits. To be honest, I am not very happy with the last group that went in there. They didn’t come to the ball and they didn’t do things. I tell them all the time that I need to trust them to do the right thing and if I can’t trust you to do the right thing, then it’s hard playing.
On playing strong the first half of the game:
We pretty much did the same thing we did at Rutgers. We kind of took them out of what they wanted to do, forced them out a little bit higher than they wanted to be and the weave is not as effective when it’s that far out on the floor. The screen is not that effective when it is that far out on the floor and you see in the second half when you don’t push them out there and you don’t get off to help. The first half I thought we played pretty well and we made some shots and that helps.
On a strong defensive game:
We were good defensively. Our offense has been part of our problem defensively at times because we want to keep dribbling instead of passing. The longer you do this, the more you realize a lot of this is just frame of mind. We were awful yesterday and I absolutely wore them out. Today we came in realizing that it wasn’t that we were smarter, it wasn’t that we were more knowledgeable, we just had energy. We had energy and we had some determination and we had the right frame of mind. Generally when we do that, we are a pretty good basketball team.
Rutgers coach Mike Rice
On this game compared to the last WVU game:
It was very similar. Lack of purpose, energy and toughness. There were too many young minds in that huddle who couldn’t pull out of the funk that they were in and the coaches couldn’t pull them out either. I give West Virginia tremendous credit. Kevin Jones and Truck (Darryl Bryant) were men amongst boys for the second time. It shows that if we don’t play with toughness or togetherness we are not a very good team.
On playing against West Virginia:
No, it’s West Virginia. For some reason again we didn’t bring that energy and they seem to bully us. They take us out of our offense. Our guys are trying to run away from West Virginia players instead of executing. I give them tremendous credit they are just tougher than us.
On the defensive performance:
It was an absolute pathetic defensive performance. They were all hugging their men. It looked like it was the first time they had met each other this afternoon. It’s just a young team that couldn’t get out of its own way this afternoon.
On the officiating:
I don’t think the referees had much to do with it. Did I like every call? No, but it was West Virginia. It was Kilicli (Deniz), Kevin Jones, Truck (Darryl), those guys had more to do with how things were being dictated than the referees. They manhandled us.
On playing well the last couple of games and losing here:
Again this team doesn’t have any seniors. They lack that they don’t know the scouting report as much as they should. Young teams lack consistency. If our best players don’t bring it every night and have that edge then we are not going to be very successful. We had zero edge tonight. It looked like this was the farthest place in the country that some of our players wanted to be. That was unfortunate for wanting to have a winning record in the BIG EAST and kind of scratch and claw your way up doesn’t make any sense. Then again this team hasn’t made sense for a lot of the year.
