CHICAGO, Ill. – The Rutgers men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season in heart-breaking fashion at WinTrust Arena against DePaul in the last of the Gavitt Games on Thursday night.
The Blue Demons connected on their final six field goals, including four three pointers to halt a comeback from the Scarlet Knights to seal the 73-70 victory.
"They made some big shots down the stretch, and we made some big ones too," Head coach
Steve Pikiell said. "I liked the looks we got. They made some big plays. We outrebounded a team that came in with a plus-25 margin. If we could have defended without fouling, that would have helped us. That gave them a huge advantage. When we got down and guarded them, we did a good job."
With just over six minutes remaining in regulation senior point guard Geo Baker hit a three-point shot to give RU a 54-50 lead, before DePaul started their run of consecutive made field goals.
Forward Ron Harper Jr. made a pair of long three pointers to cut the lead to one point heading into DePaul's final possession of the game. David Jones, who led the Blue Demons with 22 points would seal the victory with two free throws as RU hurled a full court prayer as time expired.
Thursday night's battle was back-and-forth game to say the least with a total 16 lead changes as the score was tied 11 times for the national audience watching on Fox Sports 1.
"That's life on the road, DePaul is good, a good rebounding team," Pikiell said. "It's disappointing. we didn't block out better and we fouled too much in a one-possession game. Give them credit, they worked hard and made it tough for us. They were very aggressive. They were averaging 99 points coming into the game. Give them a tip of the hat."
Below are four more takeaways from Thursday nights thriller at Wintrust Arena:
A game won at the free throw line
The eye-opening statistic Thursday was the differential in free throws attempted by the two teams.
DePaul took 27 more free throws than the Scarlet Knights. The Blue Demons attempted 33 and RU took six. Rutgers had 21 personal fouls in the game and DePaul had just 13.
DePaul shot an 18 of 33 clip from the free throw line and Pikiell cited offensive rebounds for DePaul following the missed shots as a missed opportunity in his postgame press conference.
""You can't defend the free throw line," Pikiell said. "We fouled too much. When you are on the road, when you have that disparity, I was disappointed that we didn't rebound missed free throws. You have to make up for a lot of points when you put a team on the foul line that much. We have to do a better job of rebounding without fouling."
The Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Blue Demons 39-36, a major priority for Pikiell heading into the first road game of the season.
Another double-double for Harper Jr., strong performance from Geo
Harper Jr. put together his fourth double-double of the season on Thursday night. The senior had never had four consecutive double-doubles in his career with the Scarlet Knights. Harper shot 50 percent from the field (6-12), as well as three-point range (4-8) and collected a 11 total rebounds.
The forward was in some foul trouble throughout the game and Pikiell did his best to keep Harper Jr. on the court accounting nearly 33 minutes played.
Baker continues to be a "big shot maker" early in the 2021-22 season. In several big moments throughout the game, the senior created a shot of his own and converted with the poise that he had showed on Tuesday night against NJIT at Jersey Mike's Arena.
Baker scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting and seemed to hit each of his three long distance shots on the night in major moments for the Scarlet Knights.
Baker continued to show off his play-making ability with six assists.
That marks his most assists in a non-conference game since his six dishes vs. Bryant on back in Nov. of 2019.
Depth and bench production for RU
Rutgers had five players with over nine points-scored in the game.
Starting guard Paul Mulcahy had his best shooting game of the season with nine points (4-9). Mulcahy protected the ball throughout the night with one turnover and added two assists and five rebounds.
"Paul does a lot of good things for us," Pikiell said. "He did a good job keeping the ball live, he gave us tremendous effort. We needed that and his maturity on the floor. We gave good effort, it's just one of those games, it comes down to the little things."
The Scarlet Knights were able to share the rock throughout the game and had 17 assists as a team compared to DePaul's nine dishes.
Center Clifford Omoruyi had 10 points on the night and continued to flash with emphatic dunks. In two-straight games Omoruyi has really picked up his game in the second half. Pikiell said postgame that he wants "Big Cliff" to learn from Thursday's film as he continues to develop as one of RU's most dominant forces in the paint.
The Scarlet Knights bench continued to be a strength for the team in the defeat.
The RU second-unit outscored DePaul's backups 17-8. Forward Aundre Hyatt added nine points, including a huge three-point field goal to tie the game late in the second half. Forward Mawot Mag played well early in nearly eight minutes with three assists, one basket and two rebounds.
Freshman Jaden Jones knocked down another long ball in the corner the first time he touched the ball in the first half. Graduate transfer Ralph Gonzales-Agee continues to work himself into the rotation with three offensive rebounds and a basketball in 14 minutes for Pikiell.
DePaul's top performers
Jones led the way for the Blue Demons shooting 6-of-12 from the field and an impressive 4-of-6 long distance. He added five boards, a pair of assists and a steal in the game.
Guard Javon Freeman-Liberty played all 40 minutes of the game and added 19 points on (6-17) shooting from the field. He was all over the court for DePaul with nine rebounds and three steals.
Guard Philmon Gebrewhit pitched in with 11 points and forward Brandon Johnson added nine points.
The Blue Demons timely shooting in the last five minutes of the game proved to be the key to the victory on their home court. DePaul shot 13-of-22 from the field and 6-of-11 from downtown in the second half.
The Blue Demons played a seven-man rotation, as four of their starters played over 33 minutes. The Scarlet Knights and DePaul each had exactly 11 total turnovers, 14 fastbreak points and an even 28 points in the paint.
Up next:
Pikiell looks for his team to learn from the first loss of the season as they'll have the weekend to rest and prepare for another matchup at Jersey Mike's Arena on Monday night against Lafayette (0-3).
"It's hard to play on the road," Pikiell said. "We'll have to play better. It's my job to make sure we do."
