Scarlet Knights Seek to Sink the Seawolves on Friday

Friday, December 22

Piscataway, NJ

7 p.m.

Rutgers University

Stony Brook

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Scarlet Knights Seek to Sink the Seawolves on Friday

Dec 20 | Men's Basketball

Rutgers Game Notes Stony Brook Game Notes

PISCATAWAY - Rutgers (10-3) will work to improve to 19-1 in non-conference home games under head coach Steve Pikiell when it welcomes Stony Brook (4-8) to the RAC Friday evening. The match-up features RU's second-year coach against the school he mentored from 2005-06 to 2015-16 and led to six postseason appearances over his last seven seasons.

Via the new "Winter Break at the RAC" promotion, Rutgers students with a valid ID can bring up to two free guests in the student section. At halftime, the Junior Knights Dance Team will perform.

Senior Mike Williams enters Friday's contest with 994 career points. He seeks to become the 43rd RU men's basketball player to reach 1,000 career points, following junior Corey Sanders, who reached the millennium mark against Fordham on Dec. 12.

The game will be streamed live via BTN Plus with Lou Brogno and Dom Savino calling the action. On the radio, the contest will be broadcast live on the Rutgers IMG Sports Network, WOR 710 AM in New York and WCTC 1450 AM in New Brunswick, as well as on Sirius 135 and XM 195. Jerry Recco will serve as play-by-play announcer and Joe Boylan will provide commentary. WRSU (88.7 FM) will also broadcast the game.

Pikiell is one of six RU staffers with SBU connections, along with assistant coach Jay Young, senior advisor Steve Hayn, director of basketball operations Bryan Dougher, assistant athletics director for athletic performance David VanDyke and athletic trainer Richard Campbell. Rutgers earned a 71-66 win last season at SBU. RU overcame a 10-point second half deficit by using a 15-0 run late in the contest, and went 10-of-10 at the free throw line down the stretch.

Rutgers leads the nation in rebounding (45.69) and is second in offensive rebounding (16.15), while placing third in scoring defense (58.3) and fourth in field goal defense (36.3). The Scarlet Knights are among the top three in the Big Ten in 16 stat categories.

Sanders shot 9-of-16 to score 22 points in helping Rutgers to a 71-65 win over No. 15 Seton Hall at the RAC in the annual Garden State Hardwood Classic on Saturday. Deshawn Freeman added a double-double (12 points, 16 rebounds), as RU earned its first nationally-ranked victory since a 67-62 win over No. 4 Wisconsin. A capacity crowd of 8,318 provided an energized setting for the rivalry contest, which dates back to 1916. It signaled the largest crowd since February 23, 2002, a 66-60 RU win over the Pirates. The student section, which comprised a raucous segment of the crowd, flooded on to the floor at the game's conclusion to celebrate the comeback victory with their classmates. With 6:06 on the clock, Rutgers trailed 63-65 and called timeout to halt a 9-0 SHU run. Upon returning to the floor, the RU defense limited the Pirates to 0-of-8 shooting, two free throws, and forced four turnovers to conclude the game on a 17-2 run to victory.

On the heels of the win, Rutgers was named the NABC Division I National Team of the Week, Geo Baker was honored as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Sanders was recognized as Met Player of the Week and Pikiell was named HoopDirt.com National Coach of the Week.

Under second-year head coach Jeff Boals, Stony Brook leads the America East and is 40th nationally in steals (8.3). The Seawolves, who are coming off a 62-60 loss at Providence on Sunday, are led by Akwasi Yeboah, who paces the team with 13.9 points and 6.1 rebounds-per-game.

Single game tickets for Rutgers men's basketball home games are available online or by calling the Rutgers Ticket Office at 1-866-445-GORU. Fans also have the opportunity to purchase flex ticket plans or a "Pikiell's Presents" package. Flex ticket plans enable fans to select any four games from the home schedule to create their own package. "Pikiell's Presents" includes two section 110 tickets to the games versus Stony Brook (Dec. 22) and Hartford (Dec. 28), along with two food vouchers per game and ugly holiday sweater t-shirts.

Follow Rutgers men's basketball on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersMBB), Twitter (www.twitter.com/RutgersMBB) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/RutgersMBB) for additional news and updates.