Men’s Basketball Defeats Penn State on Senior Day to Close Out Regular Season

Sunday, March 6

Piscataway, N.J.

12 PM

Rutgers University

18-12,12-8Big Ten

Penn State

12-16,7-13Big Ten

Penn St.

Rutgers

Photo by: Cos Lymperopoulos

Men’s Basketball Defeats Penn State on Senior Day to Close Out Regular Season

Mar 06 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Chris Corso

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – It was a Senior Day for the ages in Piscataway on Sunday afternoon.

Seniors Geo Baker, Ron Harper Jr., Caleb McConnell, Ralph Gonzales-Agee and Luke Nathan were sent off the court with a one-point victory to close out the season at (18-12) overall and a best-ever (12-8) in the Big Ten Conference.

A desperation shot with the time expiring from Sam Sessoms of the Nittany Lions was no good to send RU home with a 59-58 victory.

Rutgers held Penn State to 18 percent shooting and just five field goals in the first half.

"We have been down 15 And we've been able to fight back. It's a 40 minute game, it's 10 rounds," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "You just have to win the game. We were able to do that. but every single game we are in, I think they're the number one team in the country at playing one possession game. I told our guys it's going to be a one possession game. I certainly didn't lie to them."

Harper Jr. led the way with 15 points on (6-12) shooting from the field. Harper Jr. added four rebounds, two steals and a pair of assists. He passed Geoff Billett for 13^th place all-time at RU in points.

Baker six points, five assists and a steal in the game. He passed Rob Hodgson for 5^th all-time at RU in steals and passed Quincy Douby for 8^th all-time at RU in field goals made.

Senior Caleb McConnell had another all-around game, guarding players at all five positions and contributing with six points, six rebounds and a steal.

Dean Reiber scored nine points and seven of the team's first 11 points in the game when starting center Clifford Omoruyi picked up two fouls in the first few minutes of the game. Omoruyi finished with nine points, four rebounds and a block in 19 minutes.

Guard Paul Mulcahy had eight points, six assists, five rebounds, a steal and a block in the victory. He moved past Brian Ellerbe and Rick Brunson to currently rank fourth all-time in program history for most assists in a single season.

Gallery: (3-6-2022) Men's Basketball Senior Ceremony

The win was the 14th home win this season, improving RU's record at home to (14-3) this season, (42-8) over the past three seasons, and (32-4) in the last two seasons of games with fans allowed in the building. It was just the second time in the past 18 seasons that RU reached 14 home wins, along with the 2019-20 season.

Rutgers improved to (17-1) when holding opponents to 65 points or less. Rutgers claimed it's first victory over Penn State since Jan. 7, 2020.

The attendance of 8,399 was the largest for the venue in 20 years – the largest since 8,729 fans attended a February 2002 game against Seton Hall.

Rutgers will have its best seed ever at the Big Ten Tournament (previous best: 7 seed last season).