PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 23/24 Rutgers men's basketball claimed an 86-63 victory in the season opener, toppling Sacred Heart to begin the 2020-21 campaign. The Scarlet Knights had five players score in double-figures, paced by a pair of double-doubles from
Ron Harper Jr. (game-high 18 points, 10 rebounds) and freshman
Clifford Omoruyi (14 points, 11 rebounds). They were joined in double-figure scoring by
Montez Mathis (17 points),
Paul Mulcahy (15 points, seven assists) and
Myles Johnson (10 points).
Jacob Young tied his career high with eight assists as RU dished out 23 helpers. The Scarlet Knights shot 60.6 percent from the field for the contest, out-rebounded the visitors 46-31 and benefited from a 72-32 advantage in points in the paint.
The Scarlet Knights claimed a 40-25 halftime lead, finishing the frame on a 15-6 run. Omoruyi had a big impact on the glass in the opening frame with nine rebounds. RU shot 71 percent in the final frame to close out the game.
Next up for the Scarlet Knights is another home contest on Friday. RU will host FDU at 7 p.m. The game will air on Big Ten Network.
Gallery: (11-25-2020) Men's Basketball versus Sacred Heart
- Jacob Young and Clifford Omoruyi made their first career start 'On the Banks'.
- Clifford Omoruyi, Mawot Mag, Oskar Palmquist, Dean Reiber and Daniel Lobach all made their RU debuts.
- Omoroyui had a double-double in his debut, the first freshman to do so since Gregory Echinique against Marist in 2008.
- Rutgers shot 60.6%, it's highest percentage from the field since shooting 61.3 percent on November 10, 2017 in the season opener against CCNY.
- It marked the highest field goal percentage against a Division I opponent since shooting 64.8 percent from the field against Central Connecticut State on December 6, 2016
- RU's 23 assists were the most since dishing 24 dimes in that same contest vs. CCSU on 12/6/2016
- Mulcahy (7-of-7), Clifford Omoruyi (6-of-6) and Myles Johnson (5-of-5) were all perfect from the field.
- Mulcahy tied his career-high with seven assists.
- Mathis tied his career high with three steals.
- Rutgers never trailed in the contest.
- The Scarlet Knights improved to 78-29 all-time in season-openers.
- Steve Pikiell is now 5-0 at the RU helm in openers
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement: "As always I appreciate and miss you guys. So I appreciate you being on. Real thankful for Sacred Heart, Coach (Anthony) Latina for going through all the protocols to play this game today, they were awesome. I wanna really thank our medical team, Doctor Bershad, Doctor Womack, Rich Campbell, Pat Hobbs for all that went into playing a basketball game today. They did an awesome job and I'm very thankful for our guys, all the sacrifices that they made so that we could tip the ball off today. I think you saw a team that hasn't played a lot with referees, you saw a team that hasn't played against other opponents today, but we do some good things. We really shared the ball, we rebounded, our defense not good, but at times stifling. We need to get better in so many ways, but it was nice to just get up and down the court and play some basketball against some other people. I know our kids were really excited and we got two more games in the next few days, so we gotta rest and obviously hope Geo is okay. We will keep getting through these obstacles."
On Geo Baker: "I really can't tell much; he's got a bad ankle sprain, that is all I know right now. Rich (Campbell) is the best, we will see what Rich can do and Geo will get a ton of treatment tomorrow and we will have to figure it out then."
On Cliff Omoruyi: :Obviously first game 14 and 11 that is awesome. I thought he was dominant rebounding the ball in the first half. Cliff is a worker; he is a great kid. I really like our five spot obviously, I like it a lot. He and Myles did not miss a field goal today so 11-11 from that position and obviously their presence blocking spots. I am not a big who starts, who doesn't start fan, I think we have 7-8 guys that can easily start, and you already can see the obstacles we are dealing with Geo being down, so it is nice to have a bench. Really excited about how Cliff has been practicing, excited how he has been playing and along with Myles. Myles has been awesome, coming off the bench gives us another dimension too so those two gonna play a lot of minutes."
On RAC atmosphere: "Today was new, the whole thing was new, waiting for the other team to get tested, waiting for those results, playing in front of nobody, our guys are kinda figuring it out. They have to generate their own excitement, their own energy. I think some of our guys really like to play so it doesn't matter if you are in an empty gym or in a full gym, you hope to get guys who just wanna play basketball and I think our guys were ready to play someone else today. We will keep figuring out this environment and try to take advantage for what we can take advantage of, but I thought they were kinda locked in and pretty good focused. I know they can hear me now when I am coaching them so I kinda like that part of it, but certainty very different and nothing I have ever experienced."
On Paul Mulcahy: "Paul has been tremendous, he's a worker, he devours film, he has a really good feel as you can see 7 assists, 1 turnover today too. He has worked on his jump shot all summer long, he had a really good offseason. I thought he, Montez, and Jacob Young had really good off seasons and you can see it, the results show the work that you did and he is really important because he is a guy that can play multiple positions and he has good toughness. Excited about him, he's gotta get better too on the defensive end along with all the other guys and brings so much to our team."
On kneeling during National Anthem: "Our kids make personal choices and decisions. We are really good with those things. We support our players, and we are trying to bring people together here and that was a personal choice by each guy on the team how they felt and I respect the personal choices that they make and I wanna stand by my guys and I think that was important."
On foul shooting: We have struggled in that area, but we have good foul shooters and today too I think first time lights are on, we didn't shoot it particularly well from three-point land and we have been shooting great in practice. I feel a lot better about ability to shoot the ball, but obviously today there is a few areas that we did not do a great job in, but we rebounded and defended and that always gives you a chance to win a basketball game. We will continue to work on those things and some good foul shooters that normally make free throws and will be a work in progress."
On testing process: "Covid, conference/non-conference it does not discriminate between the two, but it is nerve-racking every day you get tested and you hope the guys are healthy and being really smart about it. The other team needs to test the day before and the day of and until everyone is clear, they game is not one so you are always on pins and needles."
Sacred Heart Head Coach Anthony Latina
Thoughts on the game: "Well, obviously, they're a terrific team. Coach Pikiell, who's a great friend of mine, a mentor of mine, always super-well prepared. They never beat themselves. They're super physical, and they make it very hard for you to score. To be honest with you, I'm very encouraged that we were able to compete like we did because you look at the scores in college basketball and they're ugly. We haven't had much practice time either. We were coming off a shutdown just a week ago, so we put a lot of guys who've never played college basketball game, scrimmage or otherwise, and so I was pleased by that. But listen, that's a terrific team, a legitimate second-weekend NCAA Tournament-type team. So, you know, I'm super impressed with them. Obviously, with Geo (Baker) going down hurts them because he's a catalyst offensively. They are so big and so physical and their physicality, you can't replicate that in preparation. We can run all their plays, but when you can't replicate (Clifford) Omoruyi or Myles Johnson or any of those guys."
On Rutgers' frontcourt: "They're extremely physical on both ends. So not only offensively, where they get after it on the glass, but defensively, you can't get to your spots. They're extremely fundamentally sound defensively, they don't make many mistakes. They know their rotations, they know what they're doing. You got to score, they're not giving you points. I don't know if we're ready to right now with our new guys to just create points on your own. They make you score points, so you know, you like to have a team that'll give you a few. They just don't do that. With that said, I thought scoring was going to be a major issue for us, which it was, but I was encouraged by some of our young guys, they didn't play scared. That that was encouraging."
On going forward: "We just got to keep trying to get better. We need more practice time, we hope we don't get shut down. We don't have a veteran team. Last year we had a veteran team, so they didn't want to practice, they want the games, not that they want to practice, but they were about let's get to the game. These guys, there's so green. We've put so few plays in because we don't execute what we have in very well. We will try to put more stuff in. We have to focus on trying to get better and use these games as almost another practice. Mentally, you don't want to get beat down and accumulate losses, but that's maybe what happens until we are at the point where we're good enough to win some games."
