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PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Guard Corey Sanders, the Big Ten's leading freshman scorer, shot 10-of-19 to post 23 points, but Rutgers (6-19, 0-12) dropped a hard-fought 79-69 decision to Ohio State (16-10, 8-5) on Saturday afternoon at the RAC. The difference came from behind the arc, where the Buckeyes deposited nine three-pointers, six more than the Scarlet Knights.

Sanders was joined in double figures by sophomores Mike Williams and D.J. Foreman, who contributed 13 and 10 points, respectively. Williams added four steals to help RU force 19 visitor turnovers.

Rutgers made 38.5 percent (25-of-56) of its field goal attempts. Ohio State, conversely, shot 50.8 percent (31-of-61) and established a 46-33 rebounding advantage. Despite the disparity, RU out-scored OSU 44-42 in the paint.

The game was tied 6-6 early, before the Buckeyes went on a 16-0 run to establish their largest advantage of the afternoon, 22-6. The Scarlet Knights' cold shooting began to heat up however, and the home squad responded with a 13-0 burst capped by a fast break dunk by Sanders.

With Rutgers down by three, the final five minutes of the opening half belonged to OSU's Keita Bates-Diop and Kam Williams. The duo combined to score 11 points over the stretch as the visitors entered the locker room at the midpoint with a 35-26 lead.

Bates-Diop finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds, while Williams was 5-of-8 from behind the arc to score 19 points. Combined with Jae'Sean Tate's 22-point, 13 rebound totals, the visitors held the persistent Scarlet Knights off in the second half.

RU was able to get within seven points on four occasions over the final 20 minutes, but the Buckeyes' trio consistently answered to ensure their victory.

Rutgers returns to the hardwood Tuesday night at Illinois. The game will tip-off at 9 p.m. ET on BTN.

Postgame Notes
- Corey Sanders led Rutgers with 23 points to raise his season average to a team-best 16.2 per game. He is averaging 18.4 points per Big Ten game this season and 30.0 over the last three outings.
- It was Sanders' 11th game this season leading the team in scoring and his eighth time recording at least 20 points (fifth versus Big Ten competition).
- In league games, Sanders is averaging a team-high 35.6 minutes per game, which ranks top among all freshmen in conference games and eighth overall in the category.
- Greg Lewis grabbed eight rebounds to raise his career total to 355. He has led RU in rebounding in seven games this season.
- Mike Williams had a team-best four steals, his best total in 28 career Big Ten games.
- Rutgers had 14 fast break points, its second-highest total in a conference game this year (Iowa, 17).
- Rutgers fell to 0-3 in Big Ten games against Ohio State and 1-3 overall in the all-time series.
- Three-year-old Trent Harris, the son of Rutgers football All-American and current long snapper for the Cincinnati Bengals Clark Harris, sang the national anthem.
- Former Rutgers basketball standout Quincy Douby attended the game and sat on the baseline. Douby was First Team All-Big East selection for the Scarlet Knights in 2005-06 and is eighth in program history with 17.8 points per game. He was drafted in the first round of the 2006 NBA Draft (19th overall) by the Sacramento Kings.

Eddie Jordan Quotes
Opening statement
"It was as cold inside as it was outside for us today. We didn't make many shots, we had open looks, we had...possessions, we couldn't make layups, we didn't finish to start the game and then throughout the game we got better but then there were some plays that we just didn't finish. I thought DJ and Greg played well inside and again, it was a physical presence that we brought tonight and we haven't had that in a while so I tell my team look, "We didn't win in the W department but we won in the effort and the spirit and physical presence and progress" and that is what satisfies me but when we come in and we don't get the W and we don't get the effort and don't see progress then that is a problem but no problem from me tonight with my team.

Q: What did you think about Corey's performance?
A: He goes above and beyond the call of duty. He guards their best players, he is running the show, he is scoring, he keeps us organized, he finds people, gets us assists in the game so we haven't had a freshman like that here in a long, long time. Tell me when the last time we had a freshman like that here?

Q: Quincy Douby about 10 years ago.
A: Ok so I think that is progress in that department in our program.

Q: How is Corey handling the minutes you are giving him?
A: I took him out. I wanted to give him a couple minutes and he was ready after one minute and I said, "Well just get another minute". As long as I don't see fatigue plays is what I call them just he looks like he is doing something but he just reaches and isn't finishing his plays. As long as I don't see fatigue plays --- cheating, gambling, not finishing a rotation, not boxing out but I haven't seen that yet so he continues to do a lot of things for us on both ends.

Q: Eddie, nine three pointers for them and only three for you. Was the game won at the three point line?
A: Somewhat, I just thought that the game was --- we just couldn't finish. We didn't keep the pace and we had runs, they had runs and if you guys stand on the court with those guys you will see the true length and size of their players. They have great wingspan, great size throughout that five man unit that they have. Their point guard is 6'5 you know, when he stands next to Corey, Corey looks like he is a midget and that is how if you look at every position and each position is taller than we are. Every position is much taller, longer, more athletic but if we matched up with our normal team, any normal team they are big frankly so that is why we had to fight tonight but again, we brought a physical presence tonight that we hadn't had in a long time and that was an emphasis. We have got to fight in the post, we have to box out, we have to take their deep post ups away, we have to get through screens and we just didn't handle #15 --- didn't handle his coming off of screens very well at first and then we adjusted and got some good stops but our half court defense was solid, really solid even though they shot 50%.

Q: How frustrating was it that you couldn't get that one stop late in the game?
A: When you look at the game when we close out on a 6'9, 6'8 shooter who has got long arms and we are closing out on him and he has a good look at the basket and he is a good shooter anyway that is not indicative of us not defending. We are out --- Mike Williams, Omari Grier, Bishop Daniels, Corey Sanders they close out on a 6'8 shooter and he is right there and if it was you shooting we would block your shot but a guy like that you don't really bother his shot so that 50% or that 51% that you reminded me is not a big problem for me. Our defense was solid getting through screens, being physical and we trusted and we were responsible for the system that we put in so a lot of things that normal people don't see, we were really good at.

Q: I think Lyle went for a triple double last time about a month ago against you guys. What did you do to kind of limit him?
A: He is a good player and he just took what he saw against us last time. We played some more zone last time, this time we locked down man to man and we had a feel for what he was. He was a big penetrator and he got a lot of that assist, scoring in transition there and we kind of stopped that tonight.

Thad Matta Quotes
Opening Statement:
"We got what we came for, and that was the win. We just didn't play smart today. Nineteen turnovers and some of them were hard to visualize. Thank goodness Keita [Bates-Diop], Jae'Sean [Tate] and Kam [Williams] had some pep in their step and had some bounce. I thought they did a great job of making the plays. JT had some big-time finishes and obviously Kam shot the ball well."

On his expectations for his young team:
"It's funny, and I told the guys this. This is the first team I've ever had in my 16 years as a head coach that actually practiced harder today this morning in shoot around then they played today. We were very into ourselves in the first half. It's funny, every time we would execute what we were trying to do, good things happen. Now we have to make them understand that execution is important. Defensively, we were just straight legged. We gave up on plays. To answer your question, I thought we were heading in the right direction, but today we practiced a hundred times harder then we played."

On the play of Marc Loving:
"Marc was 0-for-5 with one rebound and two turnovers. Marc has to play better than that and we have to put him in better positions, whatever it is. I'll have to take a look. I thought there were a couple guys that did a nice job. Our bigs had eight turnovers at halftime, and that to me is not being completely ready to play in terms of what we have to do."

On the difference between the team's first meeting to now:
"They're a very hard team. I'm not taking anything away from Rutgers. They caused a lot of our problems today. We just weren't tough enough to fight through them and get what we wanted. We let them take us out of what we we're trying to do. I think from a standpoint, they're a team you hate to prepare for because you know that if they get rolling, they do a great job of executing. The actions were very hard to guard and I thought from the week off, they came in ready to play."

On how he felt about the team holding the lead for the majority of the contest:
"I'm not taking anything away from the win. Like we always talk about, we want to raise the bar every time we take the court, and those are the guys that need to be willing to jump over. We weren't as connected today. Timeouts didn't have the connection we wanted. I had to take some timeouts to do some mental preparation, that sort of thing. Coming in here, for us, getting a win right now is a good thing."

On if he has ever had a team like this before:
"Coming off the last 10 minutes of the Northwestern game, I thought we would kind of ride a high note. We had to scrape and claw to get back in that thing and win the basketball game. We were trying to build off of that momentum. I thought to start the game, we had some pretty good looks at the rim and it didn't go in for us. Fortunately for us, Rutgers had some really, really good shots that also didn't go down. But our rotations were non existent. I told them at halftime that we were in a press and we need all five guys to press, not just the three up front, and we just weren't moving the way we needed to move."

On getting better:
"I've been telling them all year that we need to get better. They know that. Certain guys know they didn't play particularly well. Whatever we have to do to get those guys back in the groove, we have to do that now until Tuesday."

On fixing free throw shooting:
"We were riding a 16-in-a-row streak into today and I thought it was going to be on. But we missed our first one. I turned to the bench and said 'the streak is over'. We've been on and off. Unfortunately with us, it's been contagious. Sometimes just getting the right guys to the line helps sometimes."

On the play of JaQuan Lyle:
"Today, he just wasn't as sharp as he needed to be. I was probably more upset with the defense at times then I was with the offense. We need him to play well and he's been pretty productive the last few games. Hopefully we can get him into the swing of things."