ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Deshawn Freeman had his sixth double-double of the season and Corey Sanders contributed 12 points, but Rutgers (12-9, 2-6) could not overcome its 33.3 percent shooting in a 62-47 loss to No. 23/24 Michigan (17-5, 6-3), Sunday afternoon at the Crisler Center. The Scarlet Knights led early and drew even on the boards (33-33) in the first of three road games RU will play over four contests.

"This was a tough game," said Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell. "I give a lot of credit to Michigan. We knew coming in how good they were, how explosive they were offensively. We couldn't score today. Their defense was terrific. If you can't score, you can't win, especially on the road in this league against a ranked team."

Freeman registered 11 points and 11 rebounds. Eugene Omoruyi furthered the Rutgers attack with eight points. Eleven players saw action for the visitors, with six registering points.

Moritz Wagner had a game-high 16 points for Michigan, while Duncan Robinson contributed 12 points, courtesy of four three-pointers.

"We had some opportunities to hang around in this game," said Pikiell. "Every time we made a little bit of a run, they would bounce back. Duncan Robinson made some big threes for them at the end of the shot clock, and they just kept the momentum going."

Rutgers got out to an 8-2 lead, with a heavy substitution pattern working effectively on the defensive end. Michigan made just one of its first 11 field goal attempts.

The Wolverines then countered with a 13-0 run, as a seven minute RU scoring drought led to an 18-10 UM advantage.

The Scarlet Knights found a spurt late in the half, using a 7-0 burst, keyed by an Omoruyi three-point play to get within one possession (22-19). Rutgers closed the stanza on a 9-5 run to enter the locker room at the midpoint trailing 27-21.

Freeman led the way in the opening half with six points and seven rebounds. RU established an 18-16 advantage on the glass and limited the Wolverines to 37.0 percent shooting.

The teams continued to exchange blows after the break. A basket from Freeman reduced the deficit to six (38-32), but the home team countered with a 7-1 run to extend its advantage to double digits. The Wolverines sustained their momentum for the remainder of the contest to improve to 11-1 at home this season.

"They did a tremendous job," said Pikiell. "We've faced defenses like this before, but we couldn't move the ball side to side. We weren't as sharp as we needed to be. We had a couple of days prep for them too. I thought even with the looks that we got, we didn't capitalize on them."

Rutgers returns to the RAC to host Nebraska on Wednesday. The contest will tip-off at 7 p.m. (ET) on BTN. The first 500 fans will receive complimentary suit t-shirts to coincide with Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Week.

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.
 
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Postgame Notes

• Corey Sanders led RU with 12 points, scoring in double figures for the 16^th time this season and 60^th time in his career. Sanders now has 1,152 career points, passing Don Parsons and Steve Kaplan to move into 26^th place all-time.
• Deshawn Freeman posted 11 points and 11rebounds. It was his team-high sixth double-double of the season and 16^th of his career. He reached double digit points for the 17^th time this season (41^st time in his career) and double-digit rebounds for the 11^th time this season (33^rd in his career).
• Rutgers entered the game second in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing 62.2 points per game. RU held Michigan to 62 points, and has allowed less than 65 points in five of eight Big Ten games this season.
• Rutgers is 4-1 in afternoon games this season.
• Michigan now leads the all-time series 10-0.