PISCATAWAY – Mike Williams scored 10 points to become the 43^rd Scarlet Knight to reach the millennium mark, but his contributions off the bench were not enough, as Rutgers (10-4) dropped a 75-73 overtime decision to Stony Brook (5-8) Friday evening at the RAC. RU could not overcome an 8-of-19 performance at the charity stripe in a contest that featured 12 ties and 11 lead changes.
 
"You get what you deserve in basketball," said Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell. "This was a tough week and we knew going into it off the big win, it was going to be difficult. We didn't do a great job tonight. We missed a lot of free throws and lost some untimely possessions."
 
Four Scarlet Knights posted double digits. Deshawn Freeman led the way with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, Geo Baker was 5-of-10 from the field to add 15 points and Issa Thiam contributed 12 points.
 
Rutgers, which entered the contest leading the nation in rebounding, was undone on the glass. The Seawolves grabbed 23 offensive boards en route to a 48-41 rebounding advantage that resulted in a 38-28 scoring margin for the visitors in the paint.
 
"It came down to rebounding at the end of the day," said Pikiell. "They are an O.K. rebounding team, but they were a great rebounding team tonight."
 
The Scarlet Knights held a five point lead (64-59) with 15 seconds remaining in regulation. The home squad was unable to inbound the ball on two occasions, however, and a three-pointer by the visitors with three seconds on the clock sent the game into an extra stanza.
 
Three lead changes and three ties marked a back-and-forth additional frame. A jumper with less than a second remaining proved the decisive score and sent the Seawolves home for the holidays with the come-from-behind victory.
 
Rutgers, which shot 44.6 percent (29-of-65) overall, led by as much as eight points in the opening half and took a 75-73 edge into the halftime locker room. Stony Brook was limited to a 37.3 (28-of-75) field goal percentage, but was 12-of-16 at the free throw line and made critical shots at critical times.
 
"We finally got one to turn our way," said Stony Brook head coach Jeff Boals. "All year we battled and competed. This is the fifth high-major team we've played and we've been close in a lot of games."
 
Rutgers returns to the hardwood to host Hartford in a 7 p.m. tip-off on Thursday. The contest will be streamed live via BTN Plus.
 
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, which enable consumers to select any four games from the home schedule to create their own package.
 
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Post-Game Notes

• Mike Williams achieved 1,000 career points, becoming the 43^rd player in Rutgers men's basketball history to do so. Corey Sanders reached 1,000 career points against Fordham (Dec. 12). The last Rutgers duo to reach 1,000 points in the same season was Anthony Farmer and JR Inman, who did so during the 2008-09 campaign.
• Issa Thiam scored in double-digit points for the fifth time this season and seventh time in his career.
• Deshawn Freeman scored 20 points, reaching double-figures for the 12^th time this season and 36^th time in his career. It marked his season-high in points and his fifth career game with 20-pluss points.
• Freeman made multiple three-pointers in a game for the first time in his Rutgers career.
• Geo Baker reached double-digits for the 11^th time this season, scoring 15 points. He also added six assists, his third game with at least five assists
• Williams reached double-digits for the 46^th time in his career.
• Eugene Omoruyi tied his career-high with three blocks.
• The overtime game was the first since an OT contest against Wisconsin last season in Madison Square Garden.
• The contest marked the fifth consecutive game for the Scarlet Knights against a New York Metropolitan foe.
• Rutgers is now 4-1 all-time vs. Stony Brook. 

Post-Game Quotes
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening statement: "Basketball is a cruel sport sometimes. Sometimes you get what you deserve. I want to give Stony Brook a lot of credit; they deserved to win, and we didn't. It's a tough lesson. I was worried about this game, just as I was last year when we won by one possession. I know they're good and they were two points better today. Again, give them credit for outrebounding us with 23 offensive rebounds, which is unheard of here at the RAC. Tip of the hat."
 
On the message to the team: "You get what you deserve in basketball. This was a tough week and we knew going into it off the big win, it was going to be difficult. We didn't do a great job today. We missed a lot of free throws, lost some untimely possessions. It came down to rebounding at the end of the day. They are an OK rebounding team, but they were a great rebounding team tonight."
 
What made the difference at the end: "There were a lot of long rebounds, a lot of guard rebounds. We just didn't do a great job in that area. We have to go back to work. We have a couple days off. This game doesn't make or break us. We have to learn from it, especially a lot of the young guys playing on the floor for the first time. We have to do a better job."
 
On Stony Brook's offense late in the game: "They are a good offensive team. I watched them play UConn and Providence in close games. Those 4 and 5 guys are really good. [Akwasi] Yeboah can step out, he can take you to the rack. At the end of the day, it was second shots. They're going to score some points, averaging 75 a game. If it ended it regulation, we would have held them under that. They are a tough team to guard."
 
On a possible missed traveling call before the game-winning basket: "I kind of thought he did, but I don't know. I'll have to look at the tape. It looked like that when you first take a look. But it doesn't matter. You have to deserve to win a basketball game. We deserved to beat Seton Hall, we didn't deserve to win tonight. Basketball is a cruel life teacher, too. Some days you're up, and some days you're down. We'll see how these guys bounce off the mat."
 
On Issa Thiam: "One thing he always does is work hard. It's encouraging when he hits some shots to help us out. But we can't win a game shooting 40 percent from the foul line. We have to make some free throws and we have to make our life easy rather than make it difficult."
 
Stony Brook Head Coach Jeff Boals
 
Opening Statement: "We finally got one to turn our way. All year we battled and competed. This is the fifth high-major team we've played and we've been close in a lot of games. Against Maryland, in the second half we outscored them by three. Against Michigan State, we were in there for about 25, 27 minutes. Against UConn we were up nine with five minutes to go and lost the game and then the other night we were up 11 with seven minutes to go to Providence and lost by two. So, our goal every game is to get better than the game before, and I told our guys that at the end of the year our goal wasn't to be 13-0, it was to get better game by game. To come down the stretch and make some game-winning plays, we had not been doing that. We had not been getting big stops and had not been getting big buckets and we definitely had not been getting big rebounds. Coming into the game, obviously we knew Rutgers' best offense was offensive rebounding. Our goal, one through eight, was to block out and rebound the ball. To come out here and do what our guys did - plus seven with 23 rebounds - I think says a lot about their perseverance and grit."
 
On the Jaron Cornish game-tying basket at the end of regulation: "He's a difference maker for us. He hasn't played a whole lot of basketball. He missed a month of the season, missed I think the first three or four games with a knee injury with surgery. He came back against Brown and has gotten better every game. He just has an explosive burst. He has a 40-inch vertical and that was a big-time play on his part to come up with the steal and hit the corner three. He definitely drove us tonight."
 
On if he drew up the play at the end of regulation: "We knew we had the possession arrow, so initially we were trying to get a steal or a jump ball. We didn't want to foul right away. It was kind of a broken play in the sense that we were just trying to pressure or deny, and luckily it bounced right to him, he took two dribbles to the corner and threw up a shot. I was standing right there and it looked good. It was a big-time play on his part."
 
On being down five points with 15 seconds left: "Our mantra all year has been to bend but not break. We broke in the games I spoke about - the UConn and Providence games. I thought our guys did a great job of keeping their composure and staying focus and continuing to get defensive stops. We knew [Geo] Baker and [Corey] Sanders were going to try and take over the game like they did all year, but I think both teams were tired at the end. We came up a few plays on the positive side."
 
On the game-winning shot by Jakub Petras: "I wish I could tell you it was [the play we drew up], but it wasn't. We ran the same play a couple of times and got it to Akwasi Yeboah wide open for a layup on a simple up screen. [Deshawn] Freeman, the third time, kind of cheated the play, so it was a broken play, so big time on his part. We work with our five mans, you might not be able to tell with [Tyrell Sturdivant] going 0-for-6, but those bug guys shoot a lot of three's and shoot a lot of jump shots. Couldn't be prouder for him, he's done a great job. When we first got here, he was 292 pounds with 28 percent body fat. Our strength coach and he did a great job, and he's now 271 with 17 percent. He's worked really hard to be put in this position."
 
On motivation of playing Pikiell: "I'm sure there was. Last year it was kind of role reversal. We led for 27 minutes of the game and they hit a stretch and came out beat us. They led us for 35 minutes and we were able to make plays down the stretch. It's a tough game and I'm sure coach Pikiell, this year and last year, it's tough to play those types of games. We have guys who he recruited and who he has a relationship with, so there's always an extra edge there."