PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 19/17 Rutgers men's basketball remained unbeaten, improving to 5-0 with a 74-60 win in the Big Ten opener at Maryland. The Scarlet Knights had four double-digit scorers, led by
Ron Harper Jr. with 27 points and
Myles Johnson with a double-double (10 points, 16 rebounds).
Geo Baker scored 13 points in his first game action since the season opener, and
Jacob Young posted 11 points.
The Scarlet Knights led for 33:04 of the contest, with UMD holding the lead for just 2:01. Rutgers benefitted from 48.3 percent shooting from the field while holding the home team to 34.4 percent, and 18 assists.
The game was fairly even in the early going, then RU used a 10-0 run to take a 23 -13 lead. The Scarlet Knights' bigs keyed the push, as
Myles Johnson and
Clifford Omoruyi threw down multiple dunks in the sequence.
The visitors closed the half strong, taking advantage of a Rutgers shooting drought. At the break, it was a one-possession game.
Rutgers came out of the intermission hot. Harper Jr. scored 11 points in the first seven minutes of the half, leading a 23-10 run. That included a 10-0 spurt to push the lead back to double-digits at 50-38. The visitors took control with hot shooting, starting the frame 11-of-17 (65 percent) from the field, to ensure another double-digit victory.
Rutgers returns home next to host No. 13 Illinois. That game tips off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, broadcast by ESPN2 with Jason Benetti and Dan Dakich.
Gallery: (12-14-2020) Men's Basketball Wins at Maryland
- This was the first time since joining the league that Rutgers won its Big Ten opener.
- The victory was Rutgers' first win at Maryland since joining the Big Ten, and second overall win at Maryland, the first since 1941.
- The Scarlet Knights are now 5-11 in the all-time series.
- RU has now started the season 5-0, with all wins coming by double-digits, for the first time since 1934-35.
- Ron Harper Jr. scored 27 points, his third game this season with at least 25 points.
- Myles Johnson had a career-high 16 rebounds, adding 10 points for his second double-double of the season.
- Geo Baker returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games with an ankle injury. He was second on the team with 13 points.
- Baker now had 1,055 career points, moving past Dane Miller, Kadeem Jack, Gene Armstead, Mike Rosario to move into 37th place all-time at Rutgers.
- Baker added three assists, giving him 313 career, moving past Jeff Greer, Craig Carter and Mike Dabney to tie Dane Miller for 10th all-time at RU.
- Rutgers wore its red road uniforms for the first time this season, revealing its fourth uniform patch of the season in the push for social justice. The patch read "Say Their Names".
- Rutgers used the same starting lineup for the fourth straight game with Paul Mulcahy, Montez Mathis, Jacob Young, Ron Harper Jr. and Clifford Omoruyi as the starters.
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement: "I love Maryland's team. Coach Turgeon does a great job. This has been a tough place for us to play, a tough place for the whole league to play. So to come on the road and get our first win is a good feeling. We had to deal with travel and the obstacles Covid-19 presents. My staff did a great job getting us organized with all those details. We had finals this week too, a huge academic week. It was a good team win. Everyone that got in helped us. Typical Big Ten grind. Tough games against good teams, you have to play really well. We had some good stretches defensively. We settled down in the second half and didn't foul as much. Good road win."
On the team's second half effort: "Anytime you can hold a team that averages 78 points to 60, that's a good sign for our defense. Our defense has been getting better, but we really sat down in the second half. Once we weren't fouling them, we did better.
Geo Baker, a tip of the hat.
Myles Johnson gets a double-double, does what he does.
Montez Mathis guards,
Jacob Young guards,
Paul Mulcahy does all the things that he does for us. Everyone chipped in for a tough road win. I love the way we grinded for the whole 40 minutes."
On Geo Baker: "He practiced yesterday. He said he felt good. I didn't think he'd play that much but he said he felt good. Obviously he does some things for us defensively and offensively. He had been out 18 days, that's a long time. He logged more minutes than I originally intended but he felt good and we kept him on the floor. He's a very confident player and it was great to have him back to have our full compliment of guys."
On validating the team's ranking: "We don't get in to that. We had never won a game down here. They were the league champs, had three starters returning and the league's Sixth Man of the Year. We hadn't won at Maryland. So we just focused on the job we had to do today against a really good basketball team. We were focused on going 1-0 today to start off this 20-game gauntlet in the Big Ten. It just gets harder and we have to go one game at a time. We talk about our defense, sharing the game. The rankings don't do anything for you."
On Ron Harper Jr.: "We had four guys in double-figures. Ron was in foul trouble in the first half, he and Paul, so we platooned them a bit. Ron's a tough matchup. He's playing with really good confidence. I like his defense, I like that he's getting some assists too. I like his rebounds in traffic. There's a lot of things he gives us. Tonight, he had it going. We continue to get him the ball in good spots that makes it difficult for guys to defend him."
On winning on the road: "Any time you beat the league champs on the road is good. They play hard. We're just trying to string together winning streaks. To come down here and have a good night was real positive, especially when the obstacles hit us, we stayed the course. Our defense did a good job of holding them and making them take tough shots. If we continue to play defense like we did and share the ball, good things happen."
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening Statement: "You have to give the opponent credit. Rutgers was terrific.
Ron Harper Jr. took over the game on the offensive end and
Myles Johnson was just phenomenal on the defensive end, his shot blocking and rebounding was amazing. That's the best game I've seen him play. You have to give them credit, they made shots, they banked in shots, we didn't make shots. And we still were right there against a really good team. We have to get our confidence up, I have to coach them up better. But we played better tonight than we did at Clemson. I liked our execution better, just defensively in the second half we weren't good enough to win this game."
On the offense: "They have a lot of toughness on defense. They get over ball screens. Right at the end of the half, we got the offense going a bit. You have to give them a little credit, but also, we didn't make open looks. Really, you make a couple open threes, it's a different game. But we didn't. Every time we made a play, they answered it. I think our offense got better, but we're trying to figure it out on the go."
