COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Rutgers (13-16, 3-13) battled back from a 24-point deficit to draw to within seven in the final minutes, but could not complete the comeback in a 61-51 loss at Maryland (18-11, 7-9) on Saturday evening. Eugene Omoruyi scored nine of his 11 points after the break for a persistent Scarlet Knights team that out-rebounded the Terrapins 34-30.

Deshawn Freeman came off the bench to grab a team-high 10 rebounds, while Omoruyi contributed six boards in his second consecutive start after returning from injury.

"Maryland is a good team," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We got off to another bad start. That's been a trademark for us in the past few games. After that, I thought we played them even. We got stops and we kept attacking the rim. We stopped settling for threes. We settled down and our defense kicked in."

The Scarlet Knights received a boost via a 19-5 advantage in bench points, but were unable to compensate for their 15.8 percent (22-of-58) shooting from behind the arc. Freeman contributed seven points in a reserve role, while Mike Williams, Candido Sa and Shaquille Doorson all added four.

Maryland started hot from the field, making seven of its first 12 shots, while RU deposited two of its initial 10. As a result, the Terps opened up a 17-4 lead. Rutgers counterpunched, responding with an 8-2 spurt that included long-range makes from Geo Baker and Issa Thiam to cut its deficit to 19-12.

The remainder of the half was back-and-forth, with the two squads exchanging baskets. The Terrapins headed into the locker room at the midpoint with a 31-19 advantage. Rebounds were even (15-15) at the break, but the home squad shot 48 percent (12-of-25), while the visitors made 8-of-23 (34.8%) from the field.

Maryland opened the second half on 10-0 run to extend its lead to 41-19, before a Baker triple halted the run and initiated a 7-2 RU spurt. The Terrapins made their first eight shots after intermission to build their largest advantage, 50-26.

At that point, Rutgers mounted a rally, responding with a 10-2 run. The surge extended to a 20-5 differential over a nine-minute span. The Terps lead was trimmed to single digits (55-46) heading into the final media timeout. The Scarlet Knights managed to get the deficit to within seven (58-51), but would get no closer.

Rutgers outscored Maryland 32-30 in the second half, including 25-11 over the final 14 minutes of the game.

"This is a great league," Pikiell explained. "We just played a team that's 12-1 at home and was a preseason Top-25 team. We didn't play well enough to win today. Nothing's easy in the league, it's the best league in the country top to bottom. Trying to win on the road in this league is hard. We have to keep fighting. We've got a couple more games and we're going to fight to the end."

The Scarlet Knights remains on the road for their next contest at No. 8 Ohio State Tuesday evening in Columbus. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. on BTN.

Tickets for Rutgers men's basketball's regular season finale versus Illinois on Feb. 25 are available online or by calling the Rutgers Ticket Office at 1-866-445-GORU.

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Postgame Notes

• Rutgers out-rebounded its opponent for a third straight game and for the 15^th time this season.
• Eugene Omoruyi scored in double figures for the ninth time this season and 10^th time in his career. It marked his third time in his career to pace RU in the scoring column.
• Corey Sanders had two assists, and is now tied with Dane Miller (2009-13) with 313 helpers, ninth all-time in the RU record books.
• Mike Williams had four points, tying Damon Santiago for 35^th place all-time at RU with 1,056 career points.
• Deshawn Freeman had double-digit rebounds for the eighth time this season and the 19^th time in his career.
• Maryland improves to 9-3 in the all-time series that dates back to 1940.