PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 14/13 Rutgers men's basketball (7-1, 3-1) defeated Purdue (7-4, 2-2), 81-76, on Tuesday night at the RAC. Montez Mathis dropped a career-high 25 points, which included a five-of-five shooting line from three.

RU used a season-high 11 three pointers to help defeat the Boilermakers, shooting seven-of-nine from deep in the first 20 minutes to stretch its lead to as much as 15 points in the first half. Purdue clawed back and gained a 49-48 lead six minutes into the second half, but Rutgers muscled its way back for its third Big Ten Conference win of the season.

"Gutty, gritty win today for us against a program like Purdue who I have a ton of respect for," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We've been a little banged up physically, but I thought our guys came in and played with great energy, made plays down the stretch. I thought our defense at times was very good, got through a couple of days here with a lot of injuries and I thought we really earned that win tonight against a really, really good Purdue team."

Mathis was one of four RU players in double figures, joined by Geo Baker (19), Jacob Young (13) and Paul Mulcahy (11). Baker also added six rebounds, four assists and two steals to his impressive stat line, while Myles Johnson corralled a team-high eight rebounds in the victory. The Scarlet Knights were without the services of Ron Harper Jr. (ankle) and Clifford Omoruyi due to injures.

The Scarlet Knights were 14-of-17 at the free throw line, including an impressive 11-of-12 performance in the second stanza. The Scarlet Knights had nine different players see action, with eight scoring points. 

Next up for Rutgers is another home contest. RU will host No. 10 Iowa on Saturday at 2 p.m. That game will be televised by ESPN2. 
   

POSTGAME NOTES

• Montez Mathis set a new career-high in points with 25 points. His previous career-high was 20 on Jan. 21, 2019 against Nebraska.
• Mathis was 5-of-5 from three-point distance, also a career-high and tied for the most three-pointers a RU player has made in a Big Ten game. 
• He has scored in double-figures for the seventh time in eight games this season. 
• Jacob Young has now scored in double figures in seven straight games. 
• Geo Baker moved into sole possession of 14th all-time at Rutgers in steals and 10th all-time in three-pointers. 
• Baker set or tied his season-high in points (19), field goals (7), free throws (4), rebounds (6), blocks (1), steals (2) and minutes (37).
• Paul Mulachy (11 points) had a career-high three made three-pointers. 
• The eleven three-pointers were the most for the team in Big Ten Conference play since making 11 versus Iowa on March 2, 2019. It tied the record for most three-pointers in a league game. 
• With the victory, it marked the second straight season RU started conference play 3-1. Prior to last season, the last 3-1 start to league play for Rutgers was 1994-95.
• The team now has three straight wins over the Boilermakers, the first time since joining the Big Ten RU would have defeated a league foe three consecutive times. 
   

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

 

POSTGAME QUOTES

Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell

Opening Statement: "Gutty, gritty win today for us against a program like Purdue who I have a ton of respect for. Matt Painter has done as good as a job as anybody building a great program. I knew they got inside guys, they got guys who can really shoot it. They are a very difficult team to prepare for in a couple days and we've been a little banged up physically, but I thought our guys came in and played with great energy, made plays down the stretch. I thought our defense at times was very good, got through a couple of days here with a lot of injuries and I thought we really earned that win tonight against a really, really good Purdue team."
 
On Team without Ron Harper: "He just hurt his ankle, obviously we need everybody, we miss him, we miss Cliff (Omoruyi), we miss Caleb (McConnell). Any guy that's injured, especially in this league, you need everybody, but I thought our team responded the way we're supposed to respond. Next guy was ready to play, tip of the hat, Dean Reiber hasn't played a lot of minutes, he came in and gave us great minutes. Oskar (Palmquist) came in and made some plays. "Douc" (Mamadou Doucoure) came off the bench and had to wrestle with two of the biggest players in the conference and then everybody else stepped up. Geo (Baker) looked like Geo, Montez (Mathis) was spectacular, had just a terrific night, Jacob (Young) coming off a bad injury plays 35 minutes, I can't take him out and he has to guard Eric Hunter, who's one of the best point guards in the league and chase him around all night. It's a good team win tonight, good toughness and now we got to get these other guys back and healthy and get ready for this next stretch here."
 
On Three-Point Shooting: "We've improved a lot and credit to our guys, they've been in the gym and it's nice having Geo back, another guy who can shoot the ball from deep, but Jacob Young has been in the gym, Paul (Mulcahy) has been in the gym, Montez has been in the gym, Dean can shoot the ball too so I'm looking forward to him adding to that, Oskar is a really good shooter. I thought we got really good looks. I thought our guys were in range in rhythm. I thought our guys did a good job finding the open man. The way they defend, they (Purdue) kind of crowd the lane, so they give you those opportunities and we took advantage of it and they went in so it's always a good day when they're going in."
 
On Geo Baker: "He's a good player so we need him to play like that. He's a vocal leader too for us. I thought his defense was really good too, he had to guard some tough guys, they got shooters, they got penetrators, they got a lot of different weapons that they can kind of attack you with, but Geo looked like Geo and that ankle sprain was a bad ankle sprain and he's been getting closer and closer and I think you saw that tonight, we needed everything. I couldn't take him out of the game. Excited to have him play like that, but start to expect him to play like that, he's a good player."
 
On Paul Mulcahy: "Paul is great. Paul does a lot of things for us, 11 points is awesome, but he handles the ball, he's a leader, he's tough, I can't take him out of the game, he's banged up too. Paul has to guard bigger guys, sometimes he has to guard guards. I never get caught up in what the numbers say because I watch the film all the time and I see all the things that he does to help us win basketball games and he played great today, he really did, and we needed every one of his points."
 
On Myles Johnson: "Myles stayed out of foul trouble, that was huge tonight too, but Myles is so important to us for a lot of different reasons, especially when you play a team like this. Trevion Williams is a really good passer so if you double down you get to kind of pick your poison with him a little bit and (Zach) Edey is 7'5, he's huge.  Myles has to wrestle with them, I thought "Douc" came in and gave us some good minutes going against two of the better post guys in the league, but Myles is really important. He alters shoots, he's a really good defender, he could score down low, they are a tough team to attack down low because they're so big and they double down a lot, but Myles is really important part of this, got to keep him on the floor and then we got to get Cliff back, we got to get him healthy again so we can change our lineups and do different things."
 
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter 

On Rutgers' Shooting: "I'll know better when I watch the tape. The one's that (Paul) Mulcahy hits in the second half, nobody's there. You're just wide open. No one's rotating to him, one's a drift pass I think and the other one's just a simple help-and-recover dribble drive when a guy over-helps when his man's high and he helps low. We were in a good position there in the second half and they make two or three plays in a row. I thought (Montez) Mathis made a couple of tough ones. Gotta give him credit. I just thought that the sense of urgency from our guys — we knew they were more drivers than shooters. We also talked about how Mathis was streaky and don't let him going. Obviously, Jacob Young and Geo Baker are guys that score, can break you down off the dribble. Mathis is a good player. He's an experienced player and a guy that can get to the rim and make plays, can bulldog his way in there. When he's hot, he can knock down some shots. I was more concerned with our inability to contain the dribble, especially when there was nothing going on. There wasn't a ball screen or a rub or anything, guys just getting took off the bounce. We have to a better job keeping the ball in front of us….As a team, we're not there right now. We have to do a much better job guarding the basketball than we did tonight."

On team's defensive effort: "I think it's on the individuals. When you individually guard and you knock things out and you do a good job and then it just gets later in the shot clock and you're just one-on-one, you have to understand, if I do get beat where it goes. Sometimes when you get out in the middle of the floor and you get out in a lot of space. We want to shrink the court, help some guys. A couple of those times, we made them make some tough shots, keep the ball in the paint, we live with that. When they're just getting whipped off the bounce and they're just getting right to the middle, now we really have to over-help. it just gets everybody in a rotation, just have to do a better job of containing off the dribble."

On 23-6 run to take lead in second half: "I thought Isaiah (Thompson) made a couple shots, got looks and really gave us a spark on the offensive end. I thought that was good. We had some other guys step up and make some plays. Just had a good run. That group of guys that got us there at the end of the first half, we stayed with most of them to start the second half. Gave us that punch and they did. I thought that really helped us. We just have to do a better job of maintaining it. Just didn't have a great combination tonight of offense and defense. We had maybe a guy do some good things for us offensively and then struggle defensively.  You never can get the group of guys that you want. Trevion (Williams) obviously did some good things offensively. We thought we had an advantage there — we did. We just couldn't get enough consistent play across the board on both ends of the court."

On play of Trevion Williams: "He shot good shots. Think about the two shots that he missed. When he goes to the well and goes right at people — Myles Johnson's a big guy, good defensive player, I think he leads our league in blocks. He's a really good player. When he takes his time and he's patient, gets to his move, he's an effective player. He did some good things for us."

On Rutgers run that tied game at 55 in second half: "They made a couple more shots than we did. I'm going go and look at the breakdowns defensively. When they get the steal and the dunk it's because we don't screen and the guy with the ball doesn't recognize that it doesn't happen. He streaks and he just throws it, it's a bad turnover. It was bad execution. Guy didn't screen, the guy with the ball, he's got to recognize that.  We just couldn't get enough stops in the second half especially after we put ourself into a position to win the game."

On defensive performance: "We have to be better than this. If you expect to beat a quality team — and I know they don't have their best player. But if you expect to go on the road and beat a quality team, you just got to be better on the defensive end. You got to make it harder than what we did. If you can move laterally, have some pride and move your feet, keep the ball in front of you. We work on it, we put a lot of time into it. Guys have to be more demanding of themselves and keep the ball in front of them. We backed it up. We normally go up, pick the ball and pressure the ball. Right away when Jacob Young got going and Geo Baker got going a couple times, that wasn't going to work. That absolutely wasn't going to work. Especially with a really big center right there as they're attacking even though I though Zach (Edey) did some good things when he was in of just showing his stance and getting big, making them make tough runners. So we just backed up. With that, we were just trying to keep the ball out of the paint we didn't want them to have as much space as they did to start the game. I thought that helped to a degree. We just weren't good enough."

On potential step back in defensive foundation: "It's not a step back, it's a day. It's not like your house burned down and you going to build your old house back. You just keep working on it. We weren't very good in the beginning. If we had done a great job, it wasn't like we've arrived.  You just work on them every day. You put in the time and you keep working. It doesn't come right away, it just doesn't. It's just one of those things where you have to be better and you got to put time into it, you got to watch film and see your mistakes and the things that you're struggling with, keep working at it. That's just what it is."

On Eric Hunter Jr: "Just didn't play well. Wasn't ready to shoot a couple of times. Just didn't play well. The guy who played behind him played better so we stuck with him and played him more. He has to be ready to play. Eric's a good player, but you have to be productive. You got to be ready on both ends. You got to help us. You got to lead us. When you don't and somebody else plays better than you, that person's going to play. It's pretty simple."

On Isaiah Thompson's improvement: "It's two-fold for him. The way he played on the offensive end kept him in the game. Defensively, we didn't have too many guys out there that did a good job on the defensive end, especially our guards. We got to get some guys to establish themselves as productive players on both ends. Any time you make shots, you make some plays, that can build your confidence and hopefully can help your all-around game."
 

HIGHLIGHTS