PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball improved to 4-1 on the season, taking down MEAC Preseason favorite Howard, 85-63. Derek Simpson led the way with a career-high 23 points and Cliff Omoruyi posted a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

Howard took an early 11-2 lead, making their first two three-point attempts of the game and opening 4-of-4 from the field. Derek Simpson had six of RU's first eight points.

A Gavin Griffiths fast break slam energized the crowd, bringing RU back within one halfway though the opening frame, before Noah Fernandes stroked a triple to give the Scarlet Knights their first lead of the game. The home team used a 15-0 run over a six-minute span for a 23-14 lead. After the early 11-2 Howard spurt, RU responded with a 21-3 run overall, pushing their lead to as much as 12 points in the opening half.

After starting the half making just three of its first 12 shots, RU made 12 of its next 18 shots to go into intermission shooting 50 percent from the floor. At the break, the Scarlet Knights held a 39-31 lead.

To start the second half, RU extended their lead to 47-36. Howard came back with a run to cut the home team lead to four points by make three three-pointers.

Rutgers got hot on the offensive end, making six straight shots, including back-to-back dunks from Gavin Griffiths and Cliff Omoruyi. Howard would not relent, continuing to push back with their offense.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Aundre Hyatt and Noah Fernandes got the home crowd up, pushing the lead back into double-digits with Hyatt finishing the sequence with a slam for a 14 point lead, as RU had an 8-0 run in a quick minute of action.

Rutgers was hot in the second half, making nine of 10 shots for a 18-3 run that pushed the lead up to 20 points, and the Scarlet Knights held on to close out the Bison.

Postgame Notes

• Derek Simpson had the first 20+ point game of his career, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 7-of-9 at the charity stripe.
• Simpson, who had 15 points to lead RU in Wednesday's win over Georgetown, had back-to-back games of 15+ points for the second time in his career. He previously did so in the last two games of last season (18 vs. Purdue, 19 vs. Hofstra).
• Cliff Omoruyi moved into sole possession of seventh all-time in rebounding, moving past Kelvin Troy and Anthony Dukett. He now has 713 rebounds.
• Omoruyi had four blocks, and with 140 in his career, moved past Myles Johnson and moved into 8th all-time in Rutgers history. 
• Omoruyi had his second double-double of the year and 22^nd of his career.
• Gavin Griffiths had the first three assists of his career. 
• Noah Fernandes had a season-high five steals. 
• Rutgers shot 54.2 percent from the field, its best since shooting 58 percent against Minnesota on Feb. 1 last year.
• Rutgers scored its most points of the season and most since 90 vs. Minnesota on 2/1/23.
• Rutgers improved to 3-0 all-time against Howard.
• Rutgers had an early-season high in points, field goals (32), assists (19) and steals (11).

Up Next
Rutgers next has a nine-game break around Thanksgiving Week. The team returns to action on Monday, Nov. 27 when they host St. Peter's, followed by the first Big Ten game that Saturday against Illinois.
 


Postgame Quotes: Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell 

Opening Statement: 
"Thank you guys for coming during the holiday weekend too. We had a great crowd. I wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Again, I love the environment. I was nervous. This is a very talented team and Kenny does a really good job. They went to the NCAA tournament last year and they're picked to win their league. They have four all league guys. They're older. Always worried about those older teams. We kind of got it going. These guys really set the tone. Aundre did a great job on Odom who's a really good scorer. Derek got his career high in points and really ran the team. Cliff with another double double. I love Noah and how he played. He had an unbelievable stat line with five steals. We were able to come in off the first half we were minus five on the glass and we ended up plus on the glass which was a big jump. They're a good rebounding team. A good win against a really good, very well coached team."

On the improvement of Derek this season and his career night:
"He has just been taking command the past couple of games. He's really shown some tremendous leadership. It starts with his defense. They're really good guards today  to playing against.  One is a transfer from Maryland and some all league type guys so I think it starts with his defense.   He had it going today and is one of the best foul shooters in the country. He's taking care of his body. He's practicing the right way, there are great days ahead."  

On entire team's effort:
"I've been waiting for us. I really think this is an 80 point team.I was thankful that they got to that number tonight because we've really been missing some shots in other games that we could have made. We're starting to gel together. I mean, this was a five game stretch. I think we learned a lot about each other and now we have a week to improve and get better. We can figure out our rotation and get better in those areas too. But it starts with good leaders. Aundre, Cliff, Oskar, Mawot. Noah has done a good job too. Our practices have been very good. We need to keep that up and  it shows a mature team. I still think our best basketball is ahead of us too."

On the ability to get the ball in the paint: 
"I thought Cliff was active and he got rebounds too.  He tied his career high last time and was one under his career high today.  We got in the paint a lot of ways, we passed it in, we rebounded in the paint, and we drove it in paint. So when you're doing those kinds of things, and I think our guys do a great job of spraying the ball once they get into paint and hitting open three, still moving forward. That will  be the next progression here for us. Yeah, it's a good thing for us when we can  get in the paint to get the ball in the painting. 

On nine-day break and what that looks like: 
"They do have school work too that they need to kind of catch up on a little bit. But we're just going to try to really get better. You got a five game stretch here that was game after game after game so guys are banged up too. We'll give them a little time off. I think we'll bury some film. I think this team has a really good chance to get better. That's the one thing we did from the Princeton game on. Every time you saw us we got better. We plugged some of the holes we had rebounding wise, then turnovers went down, making open shots, finishing layups above the rim. We're going to continue to get better and there's some more things I need to put in and do with the team too. I'm excited about it now that we kind of formed our rotations here." 

Guard Derek Simpson

On the ball movement:
"I think we've been practicing very well getting the ball off the floor, making the right reads. The hockey assists are something we work on every day. We tell guys, if you're gonna cut hard, cut to the other side, you're gonna get somebody else open. I think we still have a lot more cleaning up to do.  We had 11 turnovers today. I think we're better than that as a team. So I think we've been doing great with that. We're gonna keep working on those numbers."