PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 19/17 Rutgers men's basketball defeated No. 13 Illinois, 91-88, in its Big Ten Conference home opener on Sunday afternoon at the RAC. Ron Harper Jr. led the way with a game-high 28 points along with nine rebounds, while Jacob Young contributed 24 points and four assists.

Montez Mathis also scored in double figures with 15 points. Myles Johnson recorded game-high 13 rebounds to go with nine points, three blocks and three steals.

The Scarlet Knights earned advantages in rebounding (35-34) and had just nine turnovers. RU shot 46.8 percent to score its ever most points in 40 minutes of a Big Ten game. 

It was a game of runs in the first half. RU withstood an opening punch and countered with an 11-3 run. Illini pushed lead back to double-digits, but RU countered again, and the game was tight at the intermission. Jacob Young (11) and Montez Mathis (10) each scored double-digit points in the first half.

Rutgers took its first lead of the day on a Ron Harper Jr. three-pointer early in the second half. The team came out of the locker room hot, with a 29-15 run to start the second half, and a 10-1 run that pushed the lead into double-digits at the 7:30 mark. In a high scoring second half, the Scarlet Knights outscored the visitors 54-47 in the frame to ensure the victory. Rutgers closed out the game with strong free throw shooting, making 23 of their last 28 at the charity stripe. 

The game started a stretch where RU plays five of six games against team's ranked in the AP Top 25. RU will next travel to No. 20 Ohio State (Wednesday, 4:30 p.m., BTN). That is followed by matchups with Purdue, No. 3 Iowa, No. 4 Michigan State, and No. 20 Ohio State.
 

POSTGAME NOTES

 

• This was Rutgers' first ranked win of the season and eighth ranked win under head coach Steve Pikiell.
• This was the second highest ranked team defeated by RU with Pikiell at the helm (previously defeated No. 9 Maryland last season).
• This was the first time a ranked Rutgers team beat a ranked foe since March 6, 1976, a 70-67 win over St. John's.
• Rutgers earned its third win against Illinois in 11 meetings, with all three wins coming under Pikiell. RU has now won two consecutive games against ranked Illinois teams (having defeated No. 22 Illinois 72-57 last season at The RAC).
• Rutgers' 91 points was the most ever it scored in a non-overtime Big Ten contest. RU's record for points in a Big Ten game came also against Illinois, a game on February 3, 2016 that went three overtimes. RU scored 101 points in that contest. 
• Ron Harper Jr. reached the 20 point plateau for the fourth time this season and has at least 15 points in every game. 
• Myles Johnson had double-digit rebounds for the third straight game. 
• Jacob Young scored 24 points. It was his fifth straight game scoring in double-digits. 
• Geo Baker scored 7 points and had five assists with two steals. 
  • He now has 1,062 career points, passing Damon Santiago and JR Inman for 35th all-time in Rutgers' history. 
  • He now has 318 career assists, passing Dane Miller and Steve Brown to move into 9th all-time in Rutgers history.
  • He now has 119 career steals, moving into sole possession of 15th place all-time at RU. 

 

POSTGAME QUOTES

Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell

Opening Statement: "I thought it was a great college basketball game, it's too bad the RAC was not full of our fans, that would have been an unbelievable environment. Illinois is really, really good, Coach (Brad) Underwood has done a great job building that program, tremendous respect for him as a coach and the players and their program. So, any time you can get a win against a team like that, it's a good day.  I thought our guys played hard, I thought they played the whole game. It was definitely a 40-minute game and to put up 91 points on board for us is a good sign for us moving forward, but we turn our attention quickly to a really good Ohio State team that we have to jump on a plane and go play. I'll enjoy this for a few minutes and be on the to the next one."
 
On 11-point Turnaround: "We just settled in, like it's not really a big deal. We could score this year, we can defend, it's a couple possessions and I thought we were getting some good looks. I like the fact that we didn't turn the ball over tonight. I thought that was huge for us and we were doing a good job on the glass. Those were the two things in every timeout I was most concerned with, I wasn't concerned with being up or down at any point in time. I knew how this team would play; I knew Illinois would give us 40 minutes of a war. We just had to be at the end, a point better and we were fortunate to be that."
 
On Team Defense: "(Kofi) Cockburn is really good, and it's a tough guy to guard and he (Johnson) and Cliff (Omoruyi) did a really good job all night. He's (Cockburn) really the most physical player maybe in the country, huge, and he's talented so Myles (Johnson), sleep well tonight. I thought all of our guys did a good job. I thought we did a good job converging to coming down and helping. They have really good players, I thought we did a good job on Ayo (Dosunmu) and his numbers are unbelievable but did think we made his life difficult. I was most worried about Trent Frazier because everyone talks about their big two, but Trent Frazier is a twelve-hundred points career guy going into his senior year, so he has been a really good player and obviously he played well. They got good players; you worry about them all. Most excited that we were able to out rebound them and we took care of the basketball. I thought those are two huge keys, but Myles was really good and continues to be really good and we need him to be."
 
On Jacob Young: "First of all, he's in the gym all the time, he took on the task, he wanted to guard Ayo (Dosunmu) and he had to guard (Andre) Curbelo, Trent Frazier, he had to guard a lot of people. I love his energy, love his defense, but tip of the hat, he's gotten better, he watches a lot of film, he's practicing well and he's probably one of the fastest guards in the country. I think you saw with Geo today back with another week under his belt and stuff, those guys with Montez (Mathis) and Paul (Mulcahy), those guys are all different and they're all very valuable."
 
On Rebounding: "It was huge, they were plus 17 on the glass so they are one of the leading rebound teams in the country, so we harped on it. The guys on my staff did a good job of preparing the guys, we went head-to-head with them on the backboard. We pride ourselves on a being a good rebounding team too. I was excited, we got 15 offensive rebounds, a good number against them, but I think our guys understood the scouting report and they tried to do the things that we asked them to do and they came away with a nice win against a really, really good team."

On Paul Mulcahy: "Paul does a lot of winning things and then down the stretch making all his free throws too. We shot the ball really well from the foul line to kind of wrap up the game, but he rebounds, he gets assists, he draws some tough defensive assignments, he's a really good rotational guy, he directs out there, he gives us direction at times, and I can kind of move them around. Paul has done a really, really good job of helping us in a lot of areas and sometimes those areas don't show up in the box score, but he's tough and he does winning things and you saw that today."
 
On Bench Energy: "I like our bench a lot, keeps them very involved. I'll give Caleb McConnell a tip of the hat and Luke Nathan, Nick Brooks, Daniel (Lobach) and Aiden (Terry). They do a good job first of all, simulating the other teams in practice, but then they bring great energy to us and we got to bring it ourselves. I'm thankful we got more of a veteran team than we had in the past because they're motivated to play basketball, but those guys give us great energy and we need that and today was no different. I thought our bench was really good."
 
Illinois Head Coach Brad Underwood

Opening Statement: "Life on the road in the Big Ten. Quite the learning lesson today. We got taken out behind the woodshed and whooped. Physically. We spent most of the year in the top-10 last year in foul rate. Now it's becoming a problem of epic concern. You're not going to win on the road with a 21 free throw discrepancy. There was a four-minute stretch in the second half where we just got annihilated on the glass. They got every rebound. Myles Johnson I thought was the difference in the game. Everybody's gonna look to (Ron) Harper (Jr.) because he scored some points and made some shots but Myles Johnson was the difference in the game. It's keeping them off the foul line. There's no rhythm and we cant be our best in transition and that pretty much summed up tonight's game."

On backcourt accounting for majority of team fouls: That's where all of our fouls are coming from. It's a challenge. You can't commit fouls that we're committing. You can't continually parade a team to the free throw line. Kofi (Cockburn) is back there trying to anchor the defense and our ball screen coverage and protect the front of the rim and we never got it that far because we fouled them before. Again, give them a lot of credit. Rutgers was great. Jacob Young was fabulous in the first half. We knew he was a one-man fast-break and he put a couple fouls on us. We got challenged physically and the fouling was a problem. I speak to (the guards) every day. Andre Curbelo was dominant in the game when he was on the court. I can't keep him on the court. He's gotta learn to figure out how to play. He had the ball in the paint all night. He was passing it. He was sharing it. I can't keep him in the game long enough to really impact the game. Adam (Miller) had a tough day, he'll bounce back. You can't use them all up. It gets challenging to find guys to play and it screws up your rotation and we didn't have any of that today."

On getting beat on rebounds: "Mostly it's our crackdowns. It's with our guards, It's a lack of physicality. I told them after the game, I was tired of Myles Johnson flying in and getting his hands on balls. We have a box we put in the lane right in front of the rim. All of our switches that happen in a ball screen take place really late at the rim. That's to protect the rim. Kofi has done a pretty good job of that for the most part. Those guards gotta do their job. They gotta fight. They got to keep that big guy off the glass. Da'Monte (Williams) has two rebounds, Giorgi (Bezhanishvili) has four. That's not nearly enough from that position either."

On if Adam Miller can learn from Da'Monte Williams' shot selection: "Adam's a freshman. He's having to learn. Every freshman in the country has to learn. This game is really really hard. It is a huge jump from high school and anything they do in high school. There's no similarities whatsoever other than the ball is round and the basket is 10-feet high and that's about it. The game is played completely different from the coaching aspect. Adam's having to learn. He's distraught in the locker room. He knows he didn't play his best game. We need to play again in a couple of days and he'll bounce back. He's gotta take all this and figure when he drives it, people are gonna be in there and rake balls on him. He's not getting those easy baskets at the rim like he got in high school. He's gotta figure out where his shots come from and that's part of it."

On play of Ron Harper Jr: "The game had no rhythm. He got a three right before the half. I had Coleman (Hawkins)in the game and Coleman messed up a coverage and he slipped out of a little horns action and got a clean three and that's all that it takes for a guy like that to get going. When you're a veteran, you're avering 25 points a game, you just need a clean look at the rim. Those are the things that get you going. He got his confidence in the second half and he did what a good player does.  Another night where he gets five threes. We actually played a couple possessions in zone and we didn't recognize where he was at and he hits a couple off that as well."

On reason for so many team fouls: "We're trying. It's understanding the guys they're playing against are really good and now they're getting ball screens and they're getting actions run at them. Teams are big and physical and today (Paul) Mulcahy posts Curbelo up and he picks up a foul. It's a different look, it's a different feel. I talk about chemistry on the defensive side all the time. You're only as strong as your weakest link in your chain. Last year there was a lot of veterans out there who played a lot of minutes who knew it and were strong and physical. We gotta get them better. We didn't have the preseason to play some of these buy games where we gain a lot of confidence and they understand that chemistry. We played a brutal schedule and a hard schedule. These guys are having to learn on the fly against really good people."

On team's effort during "hustle" plays: "First play of the second half their kid gets on the floor and I jumped on Kofi hard. He gets a foul on Da'Monte because he doesn't get on the floor. You don't win games like that. We didn't win games like that last year. The game finds you. The game finds effort. You can't cheat the game. And that's all you're doing when you dont play hard is cheat the game and we talk about that constantly. Give Rutgers credit and their veterans. The game meant a lot to them. They were at home. It meant more to them than it did to us."

On offense slipping in second half: "We fouled all the time. There wasn't any flow. The first half was transition and free-flowing and moving. What you do on the defensive side affects what you do on the offensive side. We weren't getting any rebounds cause they were at the free throw line. It's uninterrupted and then their defense is set. I thought we ran good offense the second half. It was the fact that we gave up close to 60 points in the second half (that) was a problem."

On missed opportunity to pick up a conference road win: "They're ranked. I think they lost one game in here last year. They're good. That's a good basketball team. They got size, they're athletic, they got great guards. No one's gonna go undefeated in Big Ten play. If you're good enough to steal a road win, great. Today we did not do that. It's on to the next." 

On team's defense against lead guards this season: "They're all good. They're all good players. They're right around their averages. When you get a bunch of them at the foul line, thats a problem. We made some adjustments defensively from the Ohio game and I felt pretty good about it. I'm not disappointed in our half-court defense. I'm disappointed in our fouling and giving our opponent 35 (free throw) attempts. It was an up-tempo game. It was them scoring. The first 10 minutes of the game they never scored out of their action. It was a couple of transition baskets, an offensive rebound from three and all of a sudden the fouling starts in the second half. We've gotta maybe just get a little bit tougher on the ball."

 

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