PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 21/22 Rutgers men's basketball defeated Syracuse, 79-69, on Tuesday night at the RAC in the Big Ten - ACC Challenge. RU utilized four players in double-figure scoring and an impressive closing stretch to close out a win over their former BIG EAST Conference foe.
The Scarlet Knights jumped out to a 20-10 lead in the opening frame. At halftime, the home team led 34-30.
After taking a counterpunch in the second half, Rutgers showed its toughness down the stretch to close out the victory. Down by three late in the second half, the Scarlet Knights used a 17-4 scoring run in the final 5:38 of the game to secure their first win over the Orange in the all-time series since Jan. 29, 2003.
Ron Harper Jr. led four RU players in double figures with 26 points, as
Montez Mathis (19),
Jacob Young (18) and
Myles Johnson (11) also produced double-digit scoring outputs. Johnson's game-high 12 rebounds earned him his first double-double of the season. Young also added 10 assists, setting a career-high in assists and recording his first career double-double.
Rutgers shot 48.3 percent for the game and held SU to 41.4%. RU also claimed the advantage in rebounding (42-26).
Rutgers opens Big Ten play next Monday at Maryland. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. RU currently has the 4th toughest remaining schedule in the nation per ESPN's Power Index.
- The victory signifies a 4-0 start to the season, marking the first time for RU since the 2017-18 season.
- Rutgers earned its third lifetime win in the Big Ten - ACC Challenge.
- Ron Harper Jr. had 26 points, his second game this season reaching at least 25 points. He has scored at least 15 points in all four games this season.
- Jacob Young finished with 18 points, 10 assists and 5 steals. That marked a career-high in assists and his first career double-double. He became the first Rutgers player to have at least 15 points and 10 assists in a game since Geo Baker posted 19 points and 11 assists on Dec. 9, 2017 against FDU.
- Young was the first Big Ten player with 10 assists in a game this season.
- Young was the first Big Ten player with 15 points, 10 assists and five steals in a game since Derrick Walton (Michigan) on March 5, 2017.
- Myles Johnson had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. This marked the second time this season RU had two players with a double-double.
- Montez Mathis posted 19 points, one shy of his career-high, while adding seven rebounds.
- The victory is Rutgers' 10th all-time against Syracuse and first win since 2003.
- It marked the first time RU defeated Syracuse by double-digits since Feb. 18, 1976, a 93-80 victory. That represented a span of 33 games.
- Rutgers is now 6-2 as a ranked team under head coach Steve Pikiell.
- This marked the first time RU has started a season with four straight double-digit wins since 1966-67.
- Rutgers wore its throwback retro uniforms, which originally debuted last season. On the uniform, RU revealed its third uniform patch of the season in the push for social justice. The patch read "Love Conquers Hate".
- Rutgers used the same starting lineup for the third straight game with Paul Mulcahy, Montez Mathis, Jacob Young, Ron Harper Jr. and Clifford Omoruyi as the starters.
Gallery: (12-9-2020) Men's Basketball Defeats Syracuse
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement: "Exciting win. I thought our team brought some great energy. I loved our bench today. Our whole bench did a really good job. Obviously, Syracuse is a great program. They have really great players, they have a Hall of Fame Coach. I have a ton of respect for Syracuse. I knew how hard this game would be for us. I loved our last five and a half minutes on the defensive end. I thought we set some goals today to do a great job on the backboards and we did that. Our guards did a really good job taking (Joe) Girard out of the game. Everyone contributed and really helped, it was a real team win today and so they earned a good day off tomorrow."
On making a statement with this win: "The last five and a half minutes, I thought toughness and rebounding and figuring out a way was great. Everybody contributed. Everyone made big plays for us. We were in foul trouble today, we had to play through a lot of obstacles, facing that zone for 40 minutes too and it's a really good zone with great length. But we showed some really good toughness and I'm proud of our guys, but it took everybody doing everything, the little things. The guys coming off the bench gave us some good minutes. We are down Geo Baker and Caleb McConnell, so we are down a couple guys, so more guys had to contribute and I'm just really excited we were able to get this win tonight. It was a good game and we went through a lot of ups and down during it and we just kept plugging away. I'm really proud of that last five minutes, they didn't score a basket. That was really good defense."
On Ron Harper Jr.: "I loved his rebounding today. He sat down and guarded some really good guards. (Kadary) Richmond can go by people and I though not just the points, he gave us some really great leadership in the timeouts. He was very vocal today, which I love. They were into the game and out team had to bring our own energy. Obviously, the RAC would have been jumping today, but the guys had to bring it themselves and Ron does a lot of things for us. He scores inside, scores outside, he's a good passer and now he's guarding some really good players on the perimeter. He did a great job of keeping people in front of him."
On Jacob Young: "Joe Girard's really good. We recruited him out of high school, I think I saw him score 48 points in a high school game. He obviously scored 30 points as a freshman in games, a bunch of 20 point nights, and Jacob's fast and did a really good job getting through all the screens and making his life really difficult. I also love the fact he was really passing the basketball, he made some great plays for us, he brings terrific energy, he has to share the game and he scores. He really did a great job on the defensive end of the floor, so he had a great game, his first double-double, so proud of him."
On Myles Johnson: "Cliff Omoruyi got in foul trouble early, we are lucky Myles does a ton of great things for us. He's a really good passer, he'll block shots, he'll alter a ton of shots, he can guard different positions, he comes in and gets us a double-double, and he kind of had to play through all kinds of foul trouble too. He had a lot of obstacles today, but really excited, 28 minutes, 28 hard minutes and really helped us do a lot of things offensively and defensively, so real, real proud. Myles has been working hard, we had a great week of practice and Myles had a great week of practice, so I think you saw that tonight."
On Syracuse: "Anytime you can beat a program like Syracuse, it's a good step for your program. We knew we'd be tested tonight, and we were, and Coach (Jim) Boeheim almost won a thousand games. I played against them when I was at UConn. I have a ton of respect for their program and he makes winning 20 games look easy. I know how difficult it is to win one game. I think our guys worked hard, they were averaging 82 points a game, we held them 69 points and we made more threes than they did, so our defense was up to the task tonight."
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement: "Rutgers is a really good defensive team. They got a lot of good players defensively, big guys in the back. I thought when we executed, we got some good shots and good looks. We caught them switching and doubling, we got in, we got layups. Kadary (Richmond) did a really good job, first game on the road against a really good team. Quincy (Guerrier), we've known that he can make threes, he hasn't, he showed tonight that he can do it in games. Marek (Dolezaj) got us off to a good start. I think our biggest problem is defensively, we get screened or we just aren't doing a good job at the front of the zone. When they get in, the forwards are not doing a good job of helping Marek in the lane, guys shouldn't be able to get layups and thats on the forwards to get in there and help. I thought we made a really good move back at the end of the first half down 10 to get it to four. We made some really good plays. To get up three, we still messed up two transition plays. Just losing the ball in transition and we can't do that against a really good team. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win and then we made two or three bad plays and our defense broke down and their point guard got all the way to the basket and got two layups. With Marek in the middle, we really have no shot-blocking ability when a little guard comes in. That's where Bourama (Sidibe) does help us. It was a lot of positive things. First road game against a good team. It's never easy to lose but there's a lot of positive things you can take away from this, things that we can work on to get better. Hurts not having Bourama and Buddy (Boeheim) down here. This is a tough game and we could've used both those guys. It's been a good experience for Kadary to get a lot of playing time.I think he's really made some good strides. He's not quite ready to play 37 minutes, he gets tired. I think these games have really helped him. I think it's put him in a good position. But we've gotta play better."
On short preparation time: "It always hurts you. It's hurt us all along. We don't get a lot of prep time for Boston College because we have to take Wednesday off, it's a mandatory day off so we have two days of prep time for Boston College. The 20 days, we won't get that back. After Boston College we get a week, hopefully that will help us. But you never get that back Those 20 days, you never get them back. That was a lot."
On Buddy Boeheim returning from quarantine: "Buddy will be back by Saturday. He's worked out every day, he's lifted, he's run, he's done all the things. He'll have two full days of practice with us on Thursday and Friday. He'll be back, he'll be ready. The time off, it hurts, no question about it."
On play of Kadary Richmond and Joe Girard: "They had 13 assists, so they were making plays which is good. Kadary's not gonna score a lot I don't think. But he made plays and made some steals, did some good things. I don't look for him to be a big scorer. Joe got frustrated, took a couple long threes. Alan (Griffin) took a couple long threes that we can't take. Those are not good shots. Joe, they're guarding him. Wherever he is, there's gonna be a guy on him trying to get him off the line. That's what everybody's gonna do. He's gonna see that all year. He's gotta play through that. Some games he might not get shots. Against North Carolina last year at the end of the year, he only had three points but he had nine assists and no turnovers and his defense was better. His defense was really bad tonight. They drove on him consistently the whole night. A little bit on Kadary too. They drove Joe consistently all night and you can't get lost up in the fact that he's having a bad offensive game and let it affect his defensive game. He's gotta be better on defense. Period."
On defensive performance: "We're getting beat at the guard spot but then we're not able to cover up in the back. When Bourama's there and Marek's at forward, we're bigger. We have a better chance to cover up. We've got Alan back there and Quincy and they're not shot blockers. We need to do a better job of helping with our forwards when they get in there. Marek's got a 6-11 250-pound guy down there he's worried about. For the most part we did a pretty good job on the big guy back down there. Overall it was pretty good. We let JY get in the lane too easy and that really hurt us. Our defense was okay. They had 55 points with 7 minutes to go. Once we start pressing — we can't press a pair of pants. That's a desperation move. We're gonna try, but we can't press. It's pretty obvious. The main problem was a couple times we didn't get the long rebounds and the guard got in the lane too many times. People are gonna make some threes, that's gonna happen. We were able to overcome that. When we got the lead, the guard got in the lane three times and got three layups. That just can't happen. Our defense has to be better."
On Kadary: "Well he's gonna bring it up sometimes and Joe's gonna bring it up sometimes. We're gonna mix it up but they can both do that. The ball pressure didn't bother us. The double teams didn't really bother us. We got what we wanted out of the half court. We got a lot of easy shots, we got a lot of open shots that we didn't make. I think Woody (Newton) has been really good but he's had three wide open shots and he's been making those. That's gonna happen with freshman I thought Alan had a couple of good looks from three. I thought Joe had a couple. Shots you gotta make. We made some but we didn't make enough."
On improvement: "I feel really good right now from what I've seen. We're four games in and we've done a lot of good things. It's difficult playing without Bourama and Buddy, but we're going to. Rider was ahead the whole game at St. John's tonight. Bryant is beating people and scoring 100 points. Those teams are better than people were giving them credit for. We can do some good things. This is a good team we played. We were down 10 and came back and took the lead on their court. That's good. We did make mistakes, but you make mistakes every game, win or lose. I'm very happy with what we're doing. Buddy was playing at a very high level and Bourama was playing the best I've ever seen him play. It's unfortunate. Those things do happen and you try to make the best out of it. We did have a couple of good practices but not many. Hopefully we can get a couple more good ones in. After the BC game we can get home and have four or five good practices before we play our next game. We need the practices. We just don't have the defensive rotations that you'd like. We have freshman, two new players out there trying to learn what we're doing out there on offense, defense and it's not that easy. When you don't practice for 17 days…I'm happy with the position we're in right now."
