PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball returns home to Jersey Mike's Arena on Monday night for the team's first game in nine days, hosting Saint Peter's for the team's fifth straight home game. The game will be streaming on B1G+. Rutgers will be running Cyber Monday specials in Jersey Mike's Arena, featuring dollar deals on water, hot dogs and popcorn and buy one, get one deals for December women's basketball and wrestling events.
The Scarlet Knights are off to a 4-1 start, currently on a four-game winning streak with wins over Boston University, Bryant, Georgetown and Howard. All four of those wins have come by double-digits, and two wins by over 20 points. Most recently, the team had a season-high offensive outburst in an 85-63 win over MEAC Preseason favorite Howard, shooting 54.2 percent from the field.
Derek Simpson led the team in scoring twice this past week, averaging 19.0 on 55.0 percent from the field (11-of-20), 3-of-4 from 3-point distance and 13-of-15 (86.7% at the free throw line). Against Howard, he scored 23 points, a new career-high in his 39th career game. He posted 15 points in the win over Georgetown, leading his team in scoring in both games this past week. The Mount Laurel, N.J. native had back-to-back games of 15+ points for the second time in his career.
Clifford Omoruyi posted 15 points and 14 rebounds against Howard, his second double-double over the past three games. Omoruyi has five career games with at least 14 rebounds and two of those have come in his past three games. Omoruyi has 713 rebounds for his career, 10
th all-time at Rutgers. He is just six rebounds from tying Don Petersen for ninth all-time at RU. Omoruyi has 971 points for his career. He needs just 29 more points to become the 46th player in Rutgers' history to reach 1,000 career points.
Rutgers is 4-0 at home this season. At Jersey Mike's Arena, the Scarlet Knights are 18-6 at home over the past two seasons, 28-10 at home over the past three seasons and 46-11 at home over the past four seasons.
Saint Peter's is 1-3 on the season and will also enter the game with an extended break, having last played on the previous Monday. The Peacocks battled with Seton Hall in their opener, leading at halftime and were within one with six minutes to play. After a win over NJIT, they have losses to FDU and UMass Lowell.
SPU was 14-18 last season (7-13 in the MAAC) and became the first 10-seed to advance to the MAAC semifinals. Corey Washington was a Third Team All-Conference selection last year and preseason all-league pick this year.
Washington averages double-figures but did not play last game against the River Hawks. Michael Hogue and Latrell Reid share the team lead at 11.5 points per game.
The team has eight newcomers which includes seven transfers. SPU was picked 10
th in the MAAC.
Rutgers is 11-4 all-time against Saint Peter's, and 9-3 at home. The Peacocks have won the last two meetings in the series, in 2014 and 2012. The last meeting came in Rutgers' first season in the Big Ten, under head coach Eddie Jordan, as Saint Peter's shot 52.2 percent from three-point distance to earn the win.
Rutgers will be looking for the program's first win over Saint Peter's since December 23, 2010, a 55-52 win, led by Mike Poole's 14 points in 18 minutes, overcoming a 12-point second half deficit. In 2009, a Rutgers win saw Hamady Ndiaye record 10 blocks, tied for second most in a single-game in RU history behind an 11-rejection performance from Roy Hinson against Stanford in 1982. RU had 18 blocks as a team in a 66-42 win that night, which stands as the school record.
Following this game, RU has a one-game entry into Big Ten Conference play. This season's early-season league slate sees the team host Illinois on Saturday, December 2. The Scarlet Knights will start a streak of three games against Power 6 league teams by facing Illinois then travelling to Wake Forest (December 6) and Seton Hall (December 9).
