NEWARK, N.J. – The Rutgers men's basketball team took a tough 77-63 loss to the Seton Hall Pirates in the Garden State Hardwood Classic at the Prudential Center on Sunday.

After a back-and-forth start to the contest, Seton Hall put together a 14-0 run late in the first half and never trailed again.

Senior guard Caleb McConnell was RU's leading scorer in the contest with 13 points. He compiled the third double-double of his career, adding a career-high 12 rebounds. 

For Seton Hall, Bryce Aiken scored 22 points on 7-for-12 shooting and was named the Joe Calabrese Most Valuable Player. Senior Jared Rhoden scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half. Five Pirates scored in double-figures led by Aiken's season-high. 
 

"It's been a long week especially with the great win we had on Thursday," senior guard Caleb McConnell said. "We had a game plan and I just feel like we didn't execute the game plan tonight. We just have to be better. We didn't come here and play Rutgers basketball. They did a better job on both ends tonight."

Senior point guard Geo Baker returned to game action for the first time since injuring his hamstring in the Lafayette game last month.Baker missed the historic victory over no. 1 Purdue on Thursday night with an illness. The senior scored 11 points and was in double figures vs. Seton Hall for 3rd time in his career, averaging 12.8 points-per-game against the Pirates.

Cliff Omoruyi had 13 points of his own in the game and continued his prowess around the basket with incredible dunks in key moments in the second half. Omoruyi added six rebounds.

Senior forward Ron Harper Jr. had a down game after scoring a season-high 30 points against Purdue on Thursday night and of course sending the Scarlet Knights home with their highest-ranked victory in program history on a half court buzzer-beater.

Harper Jr. was the fourth RU player in double digits with 10 points.

The Scarlet Knights were able to make it a six point game in the second half following a late 10-0 run.

The Pirates enter the contest nationally ranked at No. 23/25 in the country. SHU also earned a top-10 win Thursday night, taking down No. 7 Texas to improve to 8-1. It was their second top-10 win this season after earlier defeating No. 4 Michigan.

Sunday marked the 72nd meeting dating back to 1916, with SHU now leading 41-31.



Postgame Quotes

Opening Statement

"Much respect to Seton Hall and how they played tonight. They are a really good basketball team. I thought we didn't get off to a good start and you need to in a game like this. Too many turnovers in the first half, they out-rebounded us which really hurt us. I thought we had a little momentum there in the second half. I thought we played Rutgers basketball for about eight minutes there, but just not enough. The crowd was tremendous. We have to get better, we have a tough schedule coming up and we have to play better against a good team like Seton Hall."
 
On wanting to play this game vs. Seton Hall

"As you can see the environment was unbelievable. I think it's a great game for New Jersey. I don't care who the coach is I think we should play this game every year. I am thankful that Kevin (Williard) played it, but I will we played better."

On getting close in the second half

"You know we just never seemed to get that stop. There was that long possession there where the ball kept getting tipped out of bounds. But we just didn't play well. You've got to play well when they have a good basketball team. Aiken you give him the tip of the hat. He came in and he made some huge plays. I really thought the offensive rebounding by them was big. Our first shot defense was good enough, but they had those second shots and our turnovers. We talked a lot this week about how handsy they are and we just didn't do a good job of taking care of the basketball."

On the Pirates 14-0 to end the first half
"It's a game of momentum. I thought we kind of played through it and then we had a swing in the second half. But, they sort of came right back and got the momentum back. It was a game like that. I thought we could have kind of hung around and we kind of did that. We got ourselves back into this basketball game. But I tell our guys all the time when it's win time and we are down six points like we did the other day against Purdue we were able to figure out a way to get enough points and enough stops. We didn't do that today. When you are on the road in this kind of environment you have to execute and make those plays down the stretch."

On what he told his team at halftime

"I didn't feel like we played Rutgers basketball in the first half. We were down by ten and I felt good. If we could play 20 minutes the way we play when the ball moves side-to-side we could come back. At halftime I told our guys if we strap it up here for 20 minutes, it's going to get interesting. We kind of got back in it to six and we could never get over the hill."