PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 23/24 Rutgers men's basketball defeated Hofstra, 70-56, on Sunday evening at the RAC, improving to 3-0 to start the 2020-21 season. It marks the first time since 1980-81 the team has won its first three games by double-digits.
The Scarlet Knights never trailed while holding the Pride to a 30 percent mark from the field. Rutgers took control of the contest during a 21-6 first-half run, in which Hofstra missed 12 straight shots and was 2-of-19 over the stretch. A 10-0 spurt at the beginning of the second half set the stage for an eventual 22-point lead four minutes into the second half. Hofstra, shooting an improved 39 percent in the second half, cut the deficit to as low as 10 with 1:29 left in the game before running out of time.
Jacob Young paced the Rutgers scoring effort with 17 points.
Ron Harper Jr. (15 points) and
Montez Mathis (14 points) have each scored in double-figures in every game during the 3-0 start.
Paul Mulcahy, receiving his second career start, matched career-high stats with seven assists and nine rebounds.
Myles Johnson tied his career-high with five blocks.
RU shot 43.6 percent from the field and held the visitors to 30.2 percent overall. The Scarlet Knights held the advantage in rebounds (47-39) and assists (17-8).
The next game is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 8 when RU hosts Syracuse at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
- Rutgers won all three games this week by double-digits. That marked the first time that RU won its first three games to start a season, and all by double-digits since the 1980-81 season (wins over American, Princeton and Columbia).
- Rutgers outscored Hofstra in the paint (34-22) and on fast breaks (20-7). For the season, RU is outscoring opponents 162-92 in the paint and 76-14 on the fast break.
- Paul Mulcahy had a career-high in rebounds (nine) and tied his career-high in assists (7).
- Myles Johnson tied his career high with five blocks.
- Ron Harper Jr. scored in double-figures in all three games this week, averaging 21 points for the week.
- A first half three-pointer marked the first points of freshman Oskar Palmquist's collegiate career.
- Rutgers used the same starting lineup as Friday with Paul Mulcahy, Montez Mathis, Jacob Young, Ron Harper Jr. and Clifford Omoruyi as the starters.
Gallery: (11-29-2020) Men's Basketball defeats Hofstra
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement: "First of all, I appreciate you guys taking the time to be on. I want to thank Hofstra again, there is so much new protocol for teams to come and play. I want to thank them for all their work. I want to wish Coach (Mike) Mihalich, who is one of the great coaches in college basketball, a speedy recovery and Mike does a really good job. I was very nervous about this game because of their culture of winning and got good players, I love their guards and I knew they would give us a real test here. That is a good basketball team picked to win their league and they are going to have a great year. Also, I want to say congrats to Coach Schiano, I was watching, every score, it was awesome beating Purdue on the road, it has been a great weekend for Rutgers. Coach Stringer wins another game, I think she's got like 2,500 and so many wins. She seems to win every game she coaches, does an unbelievable job and always thankful for our athletic director. Great, week for Rutgers Athletics."
On Rutgers' defense: "I think we can be a lot better, that is for sure. I do like that number though, 56. They score a lot, they shoot a ton of threes, one of the better three-point shooting programs in the country, so I did like that number. I do think we had a three games in five days, I think you saw a little bit of that fatigue, but our numbers were good. It's the first game that we kept our team under 40 and under 30 (percent) from three, so that is always one of the things we want to do every night. I thought we could rebound a lot better than we did tonight too, but defensively we did things we needed to do, and we took away some of the things that they do a really good job of making threes, we did a good job of guarding the three-point line.
On Rutgers through three Games: It's interesting, just playing in this environment has been really new and not having Geo obviously and Caleb McConnell too, who's a high energy guy, so anytime a guy or two guys are out, your certainly miss them. You got to bring your own energy every night. It's just different, everything is different, and you don't get that energy from the building obviously that's been a great home court advantage, but I think we learned some things. We got a lot of film now to go over with our guys. I really like my young guys too, so we're learning the rotations with them. I knew that would take a little bit of time and be a little bit of a process for us, but now with Geo, it really kinds of speeds it up a little more with our rotations. Still got some things to figure out but got some good film and everyone chipped in and did some good things for us today. Every guy that got into the game really helped us, so that's a good sign moving forward, obviously stepping it up. We need a couple days off here, which we're going to get and then start preparing for the road ahead."
On the team: "We had great opportunities at the rim, I thought we missed a lot of open looks. It could be that, could be some fatigue, maybe I'm playing these guys too many minutes. We didn't have the pop that we had the last few days and something to for me to learn about my team. I thought we defended the way we're supposed to, defense always tells us if we're going to win, offense, 70, 80, 90, whatever we get tells you by how many and offensively today, I didn't like our energy. I didn't love our defense either so it's a good thing I'll be crabby for the next few days and it'll be good for our guys in practice."
On Rutgers' transition ffffense: It all starts with rebounding and we've had a couple halves where we really rebounded the ball, the ones that we didn't we weren't able to get out in fast break the way we would like. I mean we are athletic, Cliff gives us another real good athlete, Mawot, that freshman class too, Jacob's the fast guard, one of the fastest in the country. I think Paul does a really good job of looking up the floor too. We've spent a lot of time on it, we emphasize it, and it has paid dividends for us to date, but we've got to get better, we got to get better at that too."
Hofstra Acting Head Coach Mike Farrelly
Opening Statement: "We battled. We just couldn't make any shots. We couldn't throw it in the ocean. There was a couple of times in the second half that I thought we were a play away from making it real interesting. There was a loose ball that (Ron) Harper picked up that we should've had. After a timeout, maybe if we got that stop, we could've made it. We were just that one play away. Overall, I think you say, when you're playing a nationally-ranked team, you're gonna have to defend and rebound the way that we did. And then obviously for us, we have to make shots. Thought we had some decent looks. Maybe some other ones that weren't great. We had some opportunities there. If we made some shots, it becomes a little bit of a different game. This is a game in the past where, if it didn't go our way, making shots, it could've gotten a little bit uglier. I think our defense was rugged and the way we needed to defend in the half court. Causing turnovers, disrupting them and then we rebounded against a really big, physical Big Ten team."
On multiple comeback efforts in the second half: "Coming out of the under-8 timeout. I thought it was a similar situation. Coming out of the under-4 timeout, I know we were down maybe 11 at that point but I still felt like if we could just get one stop, we could put some pressure on. With the way we can make shots, it can go from 10 to 4 real quick. Just you get a couple of those stops in a row. Had to get that key one at a key time. Unfortunately it didn't get them to put more pressure on them. Would've like to see one more stop, one more score and see how they would've reacted."
On potential disadvantage of playing first game of the season against a team that has already played twice. "I don't know. Maybe. Our first time out here with refs playing against somebody else after all we're going through. Glad about how we were able to respond in a foreign environment. Because of that, I dont know. Fresh legs, but we don't quite have our wind yet either. Obviously we had a couple of guys go down and banged up in the middle of the game too so we got out of normal rotation. Certain guys had to play longer stretches which maybe hurt us here and there. Overall I'm not sure (if it's an) advantage or disadvantage but good to certainly get a game under our belt."
On Kvonn Cramer: "He's gonna battle. Fearless kid. Would've liked if he made that dunk. Might've been on SportsCenter tonight for that. Fantastic kid. He's worked really hard. He's gonna make these shots now. He was not making shots in high school at all. Never did. Transitioning him to a perimeter player, he's gotten so much better at it. He will continue to get better at it. He just brings a lot of energy to us and a unique spirit that can really help us."
On Isaac Kante: "They got some really good big guys. Their freshman, the top-50 recruit in the country and Isaac battled him. 17 rebounds. Amazing. It's an amazing performance. I did not think Isaac was good on the offensive end at all. I didn't think he was comfortable. Had a couple of bad turnovers. That presence on the defensive glass was huge and we know with the type of player that he is, we know he'll be better offensively."
On Jalen Ray: "He looked great. He might've been the best guard on the floor against a nationally-ranked team. We had known that before with performances he's had in the past at UCLA, CAA Tournament, all that stuff. Certainly an all-conference level performer. For him to be left off that preseason team, we all known in Hofstra nation that that was a mistake by the league. He was really comfortable out there. He's the rock. Him, Tareq and Isaac have to be those rocks for us to be good. They're gonna steady us as we bring these other younger guys and the pieces around them along. Jalen had the ball in his hands a lot today. Made some big plays and he certainly belonged and made people know who he was today."
On having to play two games in back-to-back nights: "Certainly just take care of our bodies first and foremost. Thankfully I think Jalen is the only one that played above maybe 27-28 minutes. We gotta take care of our bodies first and foremost. Ice bath, NormaTecs on the legs, all that stuff. Take care of it and be ready to go. It's gonna be a preview of what we have to get ready for in the conference. Playing back-to-back days in the conference. That's the same opponent, a little bit different than this will be. It will be different getting ready for a different opponent. But (that's) life in 2020 and the way that the schedule was presented to us. Good opportunity to get back in the Mack (Sports Complex). We're looking forward to coming home. Wish the fans could be there to support us but we certainly understand that they'll be home watching and hopefully (we) get our first win tomorrow night."
