EVANSTON, Ill. – It was Déjà vu in Evanston, Illinois for Cam Spencer and the Rutgers men's basketball team.
On RU's second-to-last possession trailing by 2 points, the junior shooting guard received a pass from senior point guard Paul Mulcahy and let a three-pointer fly.
Just like last Monday, at Mackey Arena to beat No. 1 Purdue, Spencer drilled the shot to give the Scarlet Knights a one-point lead. On the final possession RU's defense stood strong to seal the victory.
Spencer knocked down both free throws at the line on RU's final possession to seal the victory over Northwestern 65-62 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
"Give a lot of credit to Northwestern, that's a great team," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We knew this would be a grind. We made some big plays down the stretch. Cam teed it up, and then to have him on the line there, he's a great free throw shooter. He's a worker, he's in the gym. He does a lot of things for us. Everyone has to chip in, it's a team game. I'm really happy with the team tonight. Great college basketball game. We had enough in the tank on the road to get a well-earned win against a really good basketball team."
Spencer gave credit to his teammate Mulcahy when describing the big-time basket.
"All credit to Paul," Spencer said. "They helped a bit too much on Cliff, he was able to find me, and I just shot it with confidence.
"I've been trusting the work I put in and staying poised in the big moments."
With Rutgers trailing by three points with 2:11 remaining in the game, Spencer hit a bank three-pointer from the top of the key to tie the game 58-58.
Spencer shot a lethal (6-7) from three-point range.
Spencer is currently on pace to break single-season program records in three-point shooting percentage and free throw shooting percentage.
Spencer is shooting 48.2 percent from three (40-83). Tom Savage's record is 47.4 percent. He's shooting 97.2 percent from the free throw line (35-36). Steve Kaplan's record is 92.7 percent.
Mulcahy had another complete game with 12 points, six assists, five rebounds, two steals and one block. He knocked down two of his four three-point attempts.
Spencer dropped a game-high 23 points and had a career-high six three-pointers in the victory. Rutgers opened hot, making seven of its first 11 shots to jump out to a 19-11 lead. Cam Spencer had a quick nine points for RU, running the visitors early lead to double digits at 27-17. At halftime, RU led 29-24 behind a defensive effort that held NU to 33% from the field and just 3-of-12 from long-range, while making 57% from three and 40% themselves.
In the second half, Northwestern got the deficit down to two, but Cam Spencer answered with a pair of three-pointers to push the lead back up to eight. A three-pointer from Paul Mulcahy made the score 47-39 with nine minutes to play.
A sudden spurt for the home team resulting in a 10-0 Northwestern run, which gave them their first lead of the game at 53-52 with 4:30 to play. Rutgers responded with three-pointers from Aundre Hyatt and Cam Spencer for a tie at 58-all.
Rutgers was down 62-60 with the ball in final seconds, when Cam Spencer knocked down another three-pointer to give RU the lead, and then iced the game at the free throw line, as RU had a game-clinched 7-0 run.
"Defensively, we did well," Spencer said. "We made some adjustments, guarded well in the second half. Credit to my teammates for what they did all night long."
The win represented a 4-2 start to league play for the second straight year and six wins in the last eight meetings against Northwestern. RU is 3-1 in its last four games at Welsh-Ryan Arena. RU has won six of the last seven games this season. Rutgers is back at home on Sunday at 2:15 PM to take on Ohio State. The Scalret Knights are (12-5) overall and (4-2) in the conference.
Junior forward Mawot Mag scored nine points, had two rebounds and one assist. Junior center Clifford Omoruyi had four points and led the team with 11 rebounds.
Junior guard/forward Aundre Hyatt scored 10 points off the bench. Grad wing Caleb McConnell played a team-high 37 minutes, had four points, four rebounds and a pair of steals. McConnell tied RU legend James Bailey for 5th all-time at RU in steals.
Rutgers shot (11-18) from three-point range. RU was (8-10) from the free-three line and Northwestern shot (10-18) from the line. The Scarlet Knights outrebounded the Wildcats 34-29.
Rutgers had the lead for 34:18 of the game.
Gallery: (1-12-2023) Men's Basketball Wins at Northwestern
Individual Notes
Cam Spencer
- Had a season-high 23 points
- Had a career-high six three-pointers
- Has scored double-digits in five of six Big Ten games
- Has scored at least 13 points in five games overall
- Is 19-of-30(.633) on three-pointers in his last five games.
- Is now 40-of-83 (.482) on the season from three-point range. The best-ever single season mark in Rutgers' history is 47.4%, by Tom Savage in 1988-89.
- Spencer's six three-pointers were tied for the second most ever by a RU player in a Big Ten game, trailing just Geo Baker (seven at Minnesota, 1/22/22)
- Had two steals, now has 178 in his career to tie James Bailey for fifth all-time at RU.
Team Notes
Rutgers' 11 three-pointers tied its most ever in a Big Ten game.
Rutgers' 61.1 percent from three-point range was a season-high and was the best three-point percentage in a game for RU since making 62.5% versus Wisconsin (5-of-8) on Jan. 5, 2018.
Rutgers held Northwestern (62 points) below their scoring average, as they entered the game at 68.8 points per game. RU has now held all 17 of its opponents to date under their scoring average entering the game.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Steve Pikiell
On team's recent success on the road
"We had some injuries in the beginning of the season when we went on the road, this group has been really good and [Cam Spencer] has been great since day one, and there's never a doubt with him. The minute he stepped foot on campus he was ready to go, so he's been great. He leads the league in steals, three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio, and a really good defender. He's tough as nails, does a lot of great things for us. Northwestern is good and the environment here is unbelievable. I knew this team would be like this. They're so great defensively and they have a very good coach. He's got them playing at a high level, so it was tough, but a good win."
On stopping Northwestern's offensive runs
"It's a game of runs, and the free throws were huge, so we had to be prepared. I knew they would go on a run, they're as good of a team as there is in the conference and they are very experienced. Boo Buie is talented and they have a lot of really good pieces. We'll just stay the course in games like this, and we had to be able to answer runs like what they had. We're fortunate to take the win."
On advice during a late timeout
"I wanted to remind them to remain poised and not to let them get to the free throw line. You can't defend the free throw line and they have gotten a lot of their wins with that so that was my main message. Defend without fouling, show great poise, and we all knew they would make a run. We just had to withstand that".
On plan during the final offensive sequence
"The plays that lead up to that are more important than that, like the rebound Cliff got, and Aundre's big three, but we spaced the floor out and put the ball in Paul's hands, and he makes really good decisions. It could have gone anywhere and I'm confident in all my players. Whoever is open is ready to go".
On team's durability on the road
"It's Big Ten basketball, so one possession games happen all the time. My guys were tough, they stayed the course, and remained poised".
On the development of Andre Hyatt
"I loved his defense today. He is averaging 10 points and doing an unbelievable job. Big threes, two assists, no turnovers and stuck his nose in there for three rebounds. He is a veteran guy and he hit some big ones. I love his poise down the stretch and his continued development is very important for us."
On the officiating throughout the game and how to manage the different way of officiating
"It is hard to tell your team how it is being officiated when it is like that. But we must stop fouling. The officials are trying to do a good job."
On the teams impressive 16 assist on 23 field goals and 13-7 in second chance points stat
"I love the assist because this is a hard team to get assists on. They scramble and they get steals. I thought we did a really good job with 11 turnovers against a team that forces about 17 per game. I was really pleased with that, and we outrebounded them too which you have to do when you are on the road in this league. Everyone chipped in. Cliff did a great job. It is not easy down there. Nicholson is a really big guy and they were doubling him all night. That's how they play. I thought he had great poise in the post too, kicking the ball out. For about a four-minute stretch they were scoring on all second chance shots too. We got into a timeout and got ourselves refocused and then down the stretch grabbed the boards we needed to."
On what he sees in this team after going (2-1) to start conference play
"This is a new year. We lost some games early in the season on the road this year we didn't have our complete roster but you have to be really good when you go on the road in this league. Everyone has a huge home court advantage, and I told our guys to enjoy the road win for 5 five minutes but we have Ohio State, one of the best teams in the country coming to town so we will get focused on that.
On the involvement of Mawot Mag and how his efforts are helping the team as a whole
"Mawot does a lot for us. Nine points in 15 minutes he was in foul trouble. Obviously, you guys know how good he is on the defense end, but he is very capable of scoring points for us too. I love that he continues to tie it up when he is open and hit a big three today too. He is a good player, and we have a lot of faith in him."
Guard Cam Spencer
On late game dominance versus tough opponents
"I give a lot of credit to the coaches and my teammates who helped me, they really made my transition easy, and they are great to play with on the floor. It's just the trust that Coach Pikiell had in me was all that I needed".
