PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers men's basketball team came out in the second half ready to roll.
A 24-6 stretch after the catapulted the Scarlet Knights from a seven-point deficit at halftime to defeat the Warriors 48-35 on Saturday at Jersey Mike's Arena.
Rutgers allowed a total of just 12 total points in the second half to Merrimack as the team started to get things going on the offensive side of the ball. The Warriors played a tough matchup-type zone defense that gave the Scarlet Knights trouble at the beginning of the game.
"Good second half for us," said head coach
Steve Pikiell. "We held the team to 12 points in the second half. I love it. The ball wasn't going in. We figured out a way to defend. We worked on that for two days talking about our defense. It wasn't up to par against Lehigh. And we had 11 straight stops in this game and 16 out of 17 at one stretch. Awesome."
After trailing 23-16 heading into the break, the Scarlet Knights defense led to offense in the second half.
It was the first time Rutgers held an opponent under 40 points since defeating Michigan State, 67-37 on Jan. 28, 2021. In the shot clock era, Rutgers has held an opponent under 40 points 11 times.
Steve Pikiell has been the head coach in seven of those contests.
Below are 5 key takeaways from the second win of the season for Rutgers:
Jaden Jones career-game
Freshman
Jaden Jones stepped in in the second half when the Scarlet Knights needed him most.
Jones scored a career-high 9 points on the night, capped by a big-time shot in the corner to give Rutgers at 44-34 lead with 2:43 remaining on the clock.
Pikiell is beginning to trust Jones more and more in certain spots and was thrilled with his contribution during Saturday's effort.
"He made an alert play, and that was great," Pikiell said "He made some big shots too. For freshmen, it's a tough adjustment to college. It's very different. And he's come into first two games, and he hasn't flinched, and we keep seeing him get better and better and better and what I really liked was his work defensively, he did some good things for us today."
Double-Double for Big Cliff
Clifford Omoruyi continues to shine for the Scarlet Knights in 2021.
The center had his first double-double since his career-debut for Rutgers against Sacred Heart. Big Cliff had 11 points, ten rebounds in 31 minutes on Saturday. Omoruyi continues to show the ability to get the crowd going with impressive alley-oop dunks and blocks around the rim.
Saturday marked his third career game in double-digit rebounds, and his first time in his collegiate career with back-to-back double-digit rebounds.
Gallery: (11-13-2021) Men's Basketball versus Merrimack
Attacking the zone defense
Ron Harper Jr. said in the postgame press conference that the defense by Merrimack rattled Rutgers in the first half. Once the Scarlet Knights started moving the ball and beating the zone with the pass, shots started to fall.
Rutgers had 10 turnovers in the first half. In the second half the Scarlet Knights shot 3-6 from three-point range and 10-23 from the floor. Pikiell credited the defense of Warriors head coach Joe Gallo throughout Saturday's game.
"That's how Merrimack plays, they play one slower paces in the country," Pikiell said. "A tip of the hat to them. I knew it was going to be a tough game. I saw them play. The other night I watched tapes from last year. They do a really good job and they're kind of unique in how they do it. They're small and quick. They cause a lot of problems. They're very handsy, too. Any careless passes, they'll make you pay on it. And then they run a lot of clock that's what they do."
Harper Jr. leads the way on offense
In a game that was grinded out by the Scarlet Knights offense, Harper Jr. continues to be a steady player on that side of the ball. It was his 25
th career game leading the team in scoring.
The senior led the team with 13 points on the night and compiled his second-straight double-double adding on 11 rebounds.
Harper Jr. made a key play in the second half when he grabbed his own offensive rebound and gave the Knights their first lead of the game with 8:43 remaining.
Sellers and Simpson in attendance:
Rutgers all-time leadining scorer Phil Sellers was courtside for the game on Saturday and met with Pikiell and the Scarlet Knight coaches after the game.
Derek Simpson, a member of the Rutgers basketball class of 2022 was at the game with his mom and dad.
Postgame Quotes:
Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement:
"First of all, I want to congratulate Coach Schiano. What an awesome, awesome win for the football team. He does a terrific job so I'm really happy for them. And I know we have two big NCAA Tournament games tomorrow too for field hockey and soccer and those coaches are awesome. I want to wish those teams luck. Phil Sellers was in in the house today. It was great to have a legend back. So excited about that."
On the game:
"Good second half for us. Held the team to 12 points. I love it. Ball wasn't going in. But we figured out a way to defend. We worked on that for two days talking about our defense. It wasn't up to par against Lehigh. And we had 11 straight stops in this game. And 16 out of 17 at one stretch. Awesome. Eventually we're going to score. We figured out a way to do that and went on a good run. I have to give a tip of the hat to Merrimack. Their zone is real. They do a great job. Two days to prepare for it. They are one of the top steals team in the country. They're really handsy. I knew that game would be a grind because that's the pace they play at. Their zone forces you to run clock and then the way their offense is structured, they're running more clock, so we knew it'd be kind of an old-fashioned grind and it was. Real pleased that we were able to come away with a win and 2-0. Great performances by Cliff, Ron, Jaden, Aundre giving us a boost. Everyone chipped in and we were able to tough it out."
On the bench:
"It was nice to have
Mawot Mag back on the bench. I thought Dean Rieber gave us four good minutes too. Andre and new guys to our program, really kind of figuring it out and what I liked most, I love that gave us offensive lift but I think they played really well on the defensive end of the floor. I'm most pleased with their development in those areas."
On the team's leadership:
"It tough, even looking at scores early in the season across the country. A lot of new players, a lot of transfers. You're always worried early in the season. Wondering if they a new stuff in. You don't have a lot of film on people. I think both these teams we played are good. Merrimack has a chance to win that league. They're very gutsy and tough and they defend every night. So, I knew we'd be tested and we had to jump through a lot of obstacles too now. People are back in the stands and a lot of different kinds of distractions. So, I liked the way we practiced in the last couple of days and again, I like this team. When we had to defend today, I was most proud of that. We were able to string it together and made it real tough and that's a good basketball team."
On Jaden Jones:
"He made an alert play, and that was great. He made some big shots too. For freshmen, it's a tough adjustment to college. It's very different. And he's come into first two games, and he hasn't flinched, and we keep seeing him get better and better and better and what I really liked was his work defensively, he did some good things for us today."
On the second half performance:
"They were hesitant after they missed a few shots and I told them at halftime, don't be hesitant, if you're open you shoot the ball, if you're not, you pass the basketball. We were much more aggressive getting the basketball into the paint. We did a much better job obviously rebounding the basketball with different ways to score. Then guys got a little more comfortable. I thought we were on our heels a little bit offensively in the first half, but our defense kind of kept us kept us in in the game. But yeah, you don't want to get off to slow starts like that, but I do like I do like the grind. We're learning a lot of lessons we've got film. Just got to keep grinding. This has been a good group of guys."
On Merrimack:
"That's how Merrimack plays, they play one slower paces in the country. A tip of the hat to them. I knew it was going to be a tough game. I saw them play. The other night I watched tapes from last year. They do a really good job and they're kind of unique in how they do it. They're small and quick. They cause a lot of problems. They're very handsy, too. In the first half we had 10 turnovers and you have to take care of the ball against this team. Any careless passes, they'll make you pay on it. And then they run a lot of clock that's what they do. So, they shorten the game. Joe Gallo, he built the program from scratch. His first year in Division I they won the league. That's unbelievable. He's got a unique style, they are really difficult to play against. He beat Northwestern at Northwestern. He's good coach and they have a lot of New Jersey guys and those guys were hyped up to be back."
Postgame Quotes: Merrimack Head Coach Joe Gallo
On the game:
"I couldn't be prouder with how we fought and defended. We definitely didn't back down to a much bigger opponent. It would have been nice to make a few shots here and there although I actually thought we got some good ones. Anytime you're going to pull off an upset or knock off a higher level team, at some point you have to make some shots. But I couldn't be happier with the way we defended."
On playing a Big Ten team:
"It's great. We kind of do this on purpose and not only for the level of competition, but for the experience as well. For Mikey Watkins, who played in a state championship game here and Jordan McKoy is a Jersey guy, Devin Jensen is a Jersey guy. So we've had this one circled for a while."
On his personal connections to Rutgers being from New Jersey:
"I felt kind of weird. A childhood friend of mine, Chris Eibler, does the scoreboard. At halftime when I heard the fight song, it was hard to not sing it because I've been going to games here since I was probably six years old. I love what Coach Pikiell and his staff do with these guys. Every other night of the year, I'm a huge Rutgers fan."
Up Next
The Rutgers men's basketball team will take on NJIT on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. at Jersey Mikes Arena.
