UNCASVILLE, CT. – The Scarlet Knights (3-1) suffered their first loss of the season on Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.

RU's second half comeback came up short as the Scarlet Knights lost 72-66 to Temple in the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase. RU outscored Temple 43-34 in the second half.

"Our team played a second half that was tough and physical and we learned a lot about ourselves here tonight, but we have to play better and we have to play for all 40 minutes," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "Give Temple credit they made big plays down the stretch and they never gave us a chance to come back. When you are down that many points, things have to go perfectly and certainly it's a hard thing to do. But we played hard and we have to keep working."

Hillside, N.J. native Khalif Battle scored a game-high 24 points for Temple and led the Owls to a 15 point led going into halftime. Forward Jamille Reynolds had 17 points and was 7-12 from the field. Reynolds collected nine rebounds.
Rutgers was 23-60 from the field and just 1-16 from three-point range. Pikiell resorted to a stout press on defense that helped RU get back in the game.

"We lost the game in the first half," Pikiell said. "We are a different kind of team that can do a lot of different things defensively. We're learning too and we made some big plays down the stretch. But they made their free throws when they had to and they made some big shots. We gave ourselves a chance because of how hard we played, but you can't spot a team 20 minutes."

The Scarlet Knights were without two starting players and captains in senior point guard Paul Mulcahy and senior wing Caleb McConnell.



"These are the obstacles that come with the season, but that's no excuse," Pikiell said. "We were plenty good enough at all the positions and that just put guys in different roles. We have to come out better and ready to play no matter who is out on the court. But, experience is something that you can't replace."

It was the first game that Mulcahy has missed in his career at Rutgers. Pikiell said postgame that he hopes to take it "game-by-game" with both Mulcahy and McConnell going forward.

"Paul's the toughest guy I've coached; obviously if he's not going to play, he's hurt," Pikiell said. "It's hard for him; he doesn't miss anything. He doesn't miss a minute of practice. He'll work to do the rehab and hopefully he'll come back soon. We miss Caleb too, obviously, but today we had enough guys. We just didn't play well enough for 40 minutes."

Junior center Clifford Omoruyi led the scoring for RU for the second-straight game with 21 points and 11 rebounds marking his second double-double of the season. Big Cliff was 9-17 from the field in 38 minutes on the floor. Omoruyi sparked a second half run for the Scarlet Knights with multiple and-one dunks to get the offense going.
 
Junior guard Cam Spencer followed with 17 points on 5-12 from the field. Spencer played a team-high 39 minutes and made seven of his eight free throws. He grabbed five rebounds, had four assists and four steals. Spencer is up to 16 steals on the season's four games. The Davidsonville, Md. Native brought up the ball for a majority of the game in Mulcahy's absence.

Forward Aundre Hyatt had another strong performance with 13 points on 4-8 shooting and converted on all five free throw attempts. Junior forward Mawot Mag chipped in with nine points on 3-5 shooting.

Freshman guard Derek Simpson had four points in his first-career college start. Sophomore guard Jalen Miller played 11 minutes and had two points.

Rutgers will return home to take on Rider on Tuesday at Jersey Mike's Arena.