WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Steve Pikiell's 300
th career win was a special one.
Rutgers men's basketball claimed another historic victory vs. Purdue on Monday night.
The Scarlet Knights defeated a No. 1 ranked Boilermakers team for the second straight season, claiming its highest ranked road win in program history with a 65-64 win over Purdue at Mackey Arena.
Junior guard Cam Spencer hit the game-winning three-pointer late for RU in the team's final possession.
His triple with 14 seconds remaining gave the visitors the lead for good, with the defense holding stout at the other end. Spencer finished shooting (6-8) from the field with 14 points and three assists.
"He's been a great addition to our program," Pikiell said. "He's a great kid from a great family. He's the whole package."
Senior point guard Paul Mulcahy had a special night, posting a team and season-high 16 points. He also had a season-high eight rebounds while matching his career-high with four steals and posting six assists with zero turnovers. He now has 356 career assists, passing Damon Santiago for sole possession of 8th place all-time at RU in helpers.
Mulcahy made the pass to Spencer on the game-winning play.
"He's been terrific," Pikiell said of Mulcahy. "He's had a terrific career. He's a leader. Down the stretch, he wanted the ball. He makes good decisions, and he was great in this tough environment."
The Scarlet Knights led for nearly 28 minutes in the contest, with the Boilermakers in front for just 6:53. RU led by 10 points at halftime (34-24), and stretched that to a game-high lead of 13 early in the second half. Purdue answered back to tie the game at 55-55. RU answered back with a 7-2 run, then Purdue got the lead back at 64-62. That's when Spencer hit the biggest shot of the night, and lead RU to the win.
Junior center
Clifford Omoruyi outshined Purdue's seven-footer Zach Edey in the first half with 11 points and a few jaw-dropping dunks. Omoruyi was double-teamed every time he touched the ball and finished the game with 12 points and six rebounds.
RU held Purdue to their second-lowest point total this season (by one point) and 13 points below their season average. Rutgers has held all 14 of its opponents to date to point production that is lower than their scoring average entering the game. RU has held 11 of those foes to 10+ points below their average, including the Boilermakers.
Rutgers had one of the most impressive defensive halves in all of the country in the first period limited Purdue to just 24 points, their lowest in a half this season. In the first half Purdue was (6-25) from the field good for just 24 percent. Six field goals were the lowest for the Boilermakers in a half this season. Rutgers collected nine steals in the game.
"I'm extremely proud of how our team played tonight,"
Paul Mulcahy said. "
Cam Spencer has been a killer. He told us he was going to make that shot and he did."
RU shot 43.1% from the field and 42.9% from three-point distance. Senior forward
Aundre Hyatt pitched in with eight points and freshman
Derek Simpson had five. Senior forward
Caleb McConnell had six points, two assists, two steals and four rebounds.
RU outscored Purdue in the paint 26-22. Purdue received a lot of foul calls in the game and had 23 personal fouls called compared to RU's 10. The Boilermakers shot 28 free throws compared to RU's 11.
The Scarlet Knights are back home on Thursday, where the team will host Maryland at 6:30 p.m.
Postgame Notes
The win represented:
- Steve Pikiell's 300th career coaching win at the Division I level
- Five wins in the last six meetings against Purdue
- The second straight year with a win against a No. 1 team
- The second ranked win of the season and second top-ten ranked win of the season
- The 15th ranked win at RU for head coach Steve Pikiell
- The fourth top-10 win under head coach Steve Pikiell, fifth top-10 Big Ten Conference win since joining the league, and 13th all-time win over a top-10 team.
- Rutgers has only four true road ranked wins in the last 22 seasons (dating back to start of 2001-02 seasons).
- Two of those wins are in last two seasons (at #1 Purdue and last year at #14 Wisconsin). It is the first time with ranked road wins in back to back seasons since Feb. 1975 at #17 La Salle and Feb. 1976 at #17 Princeton.
- Three of those four wins are under head coach Steve Pikiell (also including a win at No. 22 Iowa in March of 2019).
- Prior to the 2018-2019 season, RU only had four true road ranked wins in program history. RU now has three ranked wins in true road games over the past six seasons.
- It was only the third ever win over a top-10 team away from home. The previous highest-ranked true road win was at #13 Pitt in 2008.
- The loss ended Purdue's 15-game homecourt winning streak. It also ended Purdue's 29-game homecourt winning streak against unranked teams. Purdue entered the game 90-11 under Matt Painter against unranked Big Ten teams.
- Mulcahy was the first RU player to ever post at least 16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals in a Big Ten win. No RU player in the past 12 seasons had reached that 16/8/6/4 statline with zero turnovers.
- Prior to Mulcahy, no Big Ten player had recorded a 16/8/6/4/0 line since at least the 2010-11 season.
- Only 10 players had reached that line in the past 12 seasons prior to Mulcahy and Mulcahy was the first in that span to do so playing against a Power 5 school, as well as the first to do so in that span in a road win.
- It was the first time this season Paul Mulcahy had led RU in scoring or rebounding, and just the second time in his career leading the team in scoring.
Postgame Quotes: Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement
"I have a ton of respect for Matt Painter and his program . Purdue was excellent. The environments are second to none, fortunate these guys came, I knew it was going to be a battle all night. We made some big plays, excited to come away with a win on the road in such a tough place. Much respect for Purdue and they play hard, they're well coached, the whole team, and a tough environment."
On the defense and press in the first half and how the team executed
"Whenever you hold a team like that that scores at will like they do to just 24 points in the first half and I think 10 were from the foul line. So again, you can't defend the foul line but I thought we really did a good job of mixing things up and just making it hard. We've been good defensively all year and these guys played really well in a tough, tough environment, but Purdue was excellent. We knew they were going to score some points. And again, we can never defend the foul line. So, we took a hit there and in the backboards. And that's really where they got majority of their points I felt"
On if the possibility to win the Big 10 Regular season title is a realistic goal
"Three games into it, it's the best league in the country. So we've got Maryland next obviously, played some good teams and I think we're good right. But it's a long, long season to worry about that you know down the road. We'll enjoy today, we'll get ready for a really good Maryland team. We have a bunch of ranked teams coming up. It's never gets easy in this league."
On impact of Cam Spencer on the program
"He played well the entire game and he's a guy who's in the gym all the time. He's in the film room, the guys on the team respect him and he's not just a shooter. He leads the league in steals in an unbelievable league and his assist to turnover ratio. He does a lot for us, but he's bought great chemistry. The guys love him. At the end there, he's like, "I'm making this!" He was very confident and he's a real confident kid. So he's been just a great addition to have, especially because it brings us another veteran guy that's been through some wars and has had some success at the college level. So really been a great addition to the program and he's a great kid from a great family and he's a great student. He's the whole package."
On the impact of limiting Purdue down low and attacking the rim on offense
"They're the best offensive rebounding team in our league. So they do a lot of things well. They don't turn the ball over a lot. Obviously, when you have a guy in the middle that's a real problem when he's averaging 5.5 offensive rebounds at night, like that stat is unbelievable. So you gotta do a lot of things. The backboards were huge key. I thought they got us a few times and they got second shots and we did foul on some of the second shots too, so that really helped them. But when we sat down and we guarded for possessions, we were pretty good and just got to do a better job of defending without fouling"
On the impact of Paul Mulcahy taking charge down the stretch and his leadership
"He's been terrific. He's had a terrific career, quite honestly. And then he's another kid, he's in grad school right now. Graduated early. He's a leader. Even down the stretch he wanted the ball. He makes good decisions. He has six assists and zero turnovers in this kind of environment with eight rebounds and four steals, so he did everything. He's a stat stuffer anyways, and he's a winner and he showed all those things tonight."
On the team's grit facing top ranked opponents
"We're tough. I mean, these guys have been through some wars. I'm sure a lot of people didn't think we could come in here, but I think the group did. They got good confidence. We have a nice blend. Wolf gave us good minutes. Derek did, Dean gave us minutes,
Jalen Miller came in, you know, we used our whole bench. Mawot was in foul trouble. Andre did a good job. He had six rebounds in the first half. We needed every single one of them. We have good grit and they're connected. We got a lot more tests ahead of us, a long season but get to enjoy this for five minutes."
On staying locked in despite foul trouble
"My assistants do a great job, preparing, but everyone was ready to help us today. That's what happens when you're on the road. We had to fight through foul trouble the entire night. And everybody chipped in, and everyone that came in to give Caleb a blow when he had his two fouls and Cam a blow when he had his three fouls and Cliff a blow. It's really important to us, you need everybody on a roster to win a game like this on the road. Everyone was ready to kind of chip in and do that. Good time for us. Good maturity."
On the importance of culture for the team in a game like this
"Huge, they've been through these experiences before they know how hard it is to play at Purdue and a lot of these venues. You're not going through it for the first time. The guys that were new here, Cam and Wolf, and Derek, the veteran guys explained to him what it was going to be like, and I think it's so important to have those guys and, I called the play late in the game today that we ran last year. Paul knew it, they all knew it. You cannot do that if you got a bunch of newcomers, I think those kinds of things are really important to your team. And especially when you got great leadership and Paul and Caleb and the job that they're doing and Cliff I mean, Cliff had to battle tonight for 40 minutes. It's not easy, Edey is huge, and he poses many problems with the size, Cliff has done it before. That experience, you cannot understate that. It's very, very important."
Gallery: (1-2-2023) Men's Basketball Wins at No. 1 Purdue
