Rutgers University
Sacred Heart
Men's Basketball Hosts Sacred Heart Thursday Night
Nov 09 | Men's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.Y. - The Rutgers men's basketball team will host Sacred Heart at Jersey Mike's Arena on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The contest is game two of the 2022 season, after RU won its opener by 40 points on Monday night against Columbia.
Sacred Heart opened the season on Tuesday night with a 77-70 win at Hartford. Senior Joey Reilly scored a career-high 23 points to lead the team. The Pioneers, coming off a 10-20 overall regular season, added four transfers this offseason and were selected second in the Northeast Conference Preseason Poll. Junior Nico Galette was named Preseason All-NEC after averaging 12.4 points and 7.9 rebounds last season.
The Scarlet Knights look to get one step closer to their goal, becoming the first Rutgers men's basketball squad in history to go "back-to-back-to-back" to the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers expects to have a sold out, 8,000 person crowd, in attendance.
Sacred Heart's win on Tuesday
Sacred Heart had four players in double figures, and Reilly tallied a career-high in points with 23. Sophomore Raymond Espinal-Guzman recorded his first career points for Sacred Heart with six. Hartford had a five-point lead over the Pioneers 10 minutes into play, 21-16. Sacred Heart answered with an 8-2 run to take a 24-23 lead with 7:03 left, in the half.
The Pioneers closed out the first half with an 8-0 run for a 44-35 lead at halftime, the largest SHU lead of the game. With just over eight minutes remaining in the second half, Hartford knocked down a three to tie the game 60-60.
Reilly sparked an 8-2 run beginning at 6:02 for Sacred Heart as him and Johnson connected for the eight points to give the Pioneers a 73-66 advantage. Hartford made a layup at 1:19 to bring the Hawks within three, 73-70, but Galette and Solomon put away their free-throws to close out the game for Sacred Heart's first win of the season, 77-70.
RU last time out
In the season opener, RU defeated Columbia 75-35, tying the lowest number of points allowed in school history in the shot-clock era.
RU started off the game on a 15-0 run and outscored Columbia 44-14 in the second half to mark the largest win over a division 1 opponent since defeating Fairleigh Dickinson by 38 points in December of 2017.
All five starters scored in double digits and the team tallied 20 assists in total. Junior guard Cam Spencer led the way with 17 points and six steals. Aundre Hyatt had his second career double-double (and first as a Scarlet Knight) with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
History with Sacred Heart
Pikiell to 100 Wins
Steve Pikiell improved to 99-91 as head coach at Rutgers and 296-265 all-time, one win away from 100 wins at Rutgers and four wins away from 300 victories in his career.
Pikiell is seeking to become just the sixth coach in Rutgers history to reach 100 wins ay the helm of the Scarlet Knights (Tom Young: 239 wins, Frank Hill: 223 wins, Bob Wenzel: 128 wins, Bill Foster: 120 wins, Donald White: 105 wins).
