PISCATAWAY – Eugene Omoruyi shot 9-of-11 to score a career-high 22 points for Rutgers (6-1) in a hard-fought 78-73 loss to Florida State (6-0) Tuesday evening at the RAC in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. The Scarlet Knights made a season-best 80 percent (16-of-20) of their free throw attempts in the contest, which featured eight ties and seven lead changes.

"I thought we fought," said Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell. "I thought we played hard. I'll coach this team any day of the week. (They) left it on the floor, but came up a little short. We'll learn from it and we'll move on."

Omoruyi was joined in double figures by Corey Sanders, who registered 20 points and dished-out five assists. It marked the first time RU had two players with 20-plus points in a regulation contest since Dec. 28, 2015, when Omari Grier (22) and Sanders (20) reached the plateau in a win over UMass-Lowell.

"Eugene has been awesome," said Pikiell. "He's the most improved guy in our program. I've been saying that. He brings it every night. He'll get better and better. I'm excited about his progress."

Deshawn Freeman had his 12^th career double-double grabbing a career-high 16 rebounds and scoring 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting. The senior competed for 31 minutes and fought through cramping issues through much of the second stanza.

Rutgers jumped-out to a 7-3 advantage in a back-and-forth opening half that resulted in the Scarlet Knights entering the locker room at the midpoint trailing 36-35.

The final 20 minutes was also tightly contested. The Scarlet Knights led, 45-42, before an 11-0 run by the visitors with Freeman sidelined, provided FSU an advantage it would not relinquish. Rutgers drew to within three points on four occasions, but would get no closer.

The Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Seminoles 41-36 and established an 18-4 advantage in second chance points.

Rutgers returns to the hardwood at No. 12-ranked Minnesota on Sunday to begin Big Ten play. The contest will tip-off at 6 p.m. Eastern on BTN.

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Post-Game Notes

• Eugene Omoruyi's 22 points was a career-high. He was joined in double figures by Corey Sanders (20). The last time had two players with 20-plus points in a regulation contest was Dec. 28, 2015, when Omari Grier (22) and Corey Sanders (20) reached the plateau in a win over UMass-Lowell.
• Rutgers shot 80 percent (16-of-20) at the charity stripe, its best free throw shooting performance since an 84.6 (11-of-13) showing versus Illinois on March 4, 2017.
• Sanders reached 20 points for the 12^th time in his career and posted double-digits for the 49^th time.
• Deshawn Freeman had 15 points and a career-best 16 rebounds to earn his 12^th career double-double and his second of the season. He led the team in rebounding for the 26^th time in his career and achieved double figures in scoring for the 30^th time.
• Rutgers is now 14-1 in non-conference home games under head coach Steve Pikiell.
• Florida State now leads the all-time series 2-0. Rutgers is 1-3 in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. 

Post-Game Quotes
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell

Opening statement: "The RAC was awesome tonight. I want to thank our fans for coming out. The student section was great. I think Florida State, I watched all the tapes, that's an NCAA tournament team. Obviously, well coached and have a lot of weapons. I thought we fought. I thought we played hard. I'll coach that team any day of the week. Left it on the floor. Came up a little short. We'll learn from it and we'll move on."

On where FSU got away: "They're good. A little separation at the end. We fought through every obstacle today. Everybody is in foul trouble. Guys cramping up. Couple calls. We fought through a lot of different things. They just got us by a few. Obviously, they had a guy who hasn't made threes come in and have a career high for threes. Goes two for seven for the year and gets four against us on the road. Signs of a good team. They have some veteran guys. They have guys that have been around. We out rebounded them. They switched to zone. They haven't played one possession of zone all year. One of the best defensive teams in the country. So, we had to make a couple more shots. I thought we made free throws. Turned the ball over at a couple of crucial times. We played really hard against a good team."

On Eugene Omoruyi's performance: "Eugene has been awesome. He's the most improved guy in our program. I've been saying that. Brings it every night. He'll get better and better. I'm excited about his progress."

On Freeman's injury: "Cramps, he had a little bit of everything. He was a warrior tonight."

On Eugene Omoruyi playing in the middle of FSU's zone: "Especially when their shot blocker was out. They also are one of the best shot blocking teams in the country. Eugene took it right to the rim in that zone. I like when he plays aggressive like that. He's a matchup problem and will be a matchup problem the rest of the year too as we keep moving forward. I'm going to keep moving him around the board a little bit."

On Corey Sanders' performance: It's hard to simulate that. Geo getting in foul trouble early, that was one of the keys before the game. Geo and Corey were going to have to log a lot of minutes. I was hopeful to have Geo spell him and he brings it up. Corey sometimes brings it up for each other. Didn't work out that way. Had two fouls at the 16^th minutes mark. So, we had to change our game plan there a little bit. But, they're very good defensively and they play a lot of players. They have a lot of players. So, keep coming at you in waves. I thought Corey did a great job. They don't allow you to run your stuff. We were able to score 73 points. They haven't given that up in a while. So, our point production was fine. These guys did a good job with short prep time too for a team very different than what we have faced."

On the takeaways going into Big Ten play: "We play hard and we're going to be ready for the Big Ten schedule. I think we obviously have as tough a schedule as any team in the league right out the gate. We have to battle. We have to really get after Minnesota then we have Michigan State after that. Some tough games but we'll continue to get better. We're still finding ourselves. We have two freshmen in the starting lineup. We got to keep tweaking this thing and get better at areas we haven't been great in. I liked our free throw shooting today. We got to the line and made free throws. That was a big help for us. We'll keep practicing and we'll keep getting better."

Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton

Opening Statement: "I thought Rutgers was very well prepared. Early in the head game I think they kept us off balance by mixing the defenses. We knew they would play some 2-2-1, and mix it back and forth with man-to-man zone, but it bothers me more than I hoped that it would. It kept us out of rhythm. They were very well prepared, and they got a lot of second shots there early in the game. We did a poor job of keeping them off the glass. The game could've gone either way. The first half we had a little spurt there. That gave us a little bit of cushion, but that I didn't really feel safe. We had them use a zone, it wasn't very good. But, at least this gave them a little bit of change of pace. It gave us a couple opportunities to get a couple steals, force a couple turnovers. Each turnover we got late in the second half turned into a basket for us. They did a great job bringing their program back, I thought our kids just stepped up and made a few plays when the game was on the line. It probably gave us a chance to win the game, it could've gone either way."

On Deshawn Freeman exiting the game with injury: "It's kind of just the nature of the game. It changed for us when Mfiandu had his four fouls, and MJ had his. Terance had what, four fouls? It gave them a lot of opportunity. When he went out, it helped it flow back in our direction. I thought that we struggled a little bit because we had some guys that characteristically shoot the ball really well. But once we got in foul trouble we had to find a way to play with who we had available. So my guys just stepped up. The game could've gone either way. Obviously, I'm pleased with the fact that we came away with a victory, but I thought that Rutgers obviously could've put themselves in the same position."

On the crowd:  "We're accustomed to playing against crowds like this: passionate crowds in the ACC. But I thought our kids showed a lot of character. Obviously CJ just recognized something when his teammates were in foul trouble, and he stepped up a little bit. And for him to be a sophomore, this is the first big opportunity he had, and I thought he showed a lot of character by making play after play. I thought Phil Cofer stepped up the night for us. So we're a team here that has to win games by committing. Every game we play we have somebody different, a new leading scorer. We're still trying to find ourselves, very similar to Rutgers. I thought the deciding factor was that we had a guy that was able to make some plays down the stretch and hit some free throws. That put us in a good position to win the game."

On Eugene Omoruyi's performance: "Well obviously we went zone, and we knew they would throw the ball into the middle of the floor. He took advantage of us. He made play after play, and we didn't have much of an answer for that. We kept them out of a system that they're normally accustomed to running. But having a guy like that that can come off the bench and give you points in a game like that says an awful lot about him."

On importance of a test this was heading into Florida: "It's a tremendous test for us. This was the kind of game I thought we really needed. W going down to one of the top-five, six ranked teams in the county. They're playing very, very well. Averaging 100 points a game, shooting 47% from three-point. But we will enjoy this victory lightly, and tomorrow we will start giving our focus to University of Florida."