PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers men's basketball team defeated Stonehill in its non-conference finale, 59-58 at Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway, N.J. behind a huge three-pointer from sophomore guard
Derek Simpson.
Simpson stepped up and drilled a three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining to give RU the one-point lead. Simpson added 14 points,four assists, five rebounds, and two steals in 33 minutes of action.
Senior
Clifford Omoruyi led the Scarlet Knights with his fifth double-double of the season via 17 points, a career-high 17 rebounds, and three rejections. Grad
Aundre Hyatt supplied 15 points and three boards.
The Scarlet Knights raced out to an early 14-5 lead. The advantage was ignited by a 10-1 spurt in the early stages of the contest.
RU's lead ballooned out to 27-15 via a 10-3 scoring run with 6:36 remaining in the opening stanza. Rutgers led 35-29 at the break fueled by Omoruyi (9), Hyatt (8), and Simpson (8).
In the second half Stonehill manufactured a 47-43 lead with 11:08 to play.
The contest went back and forth with good defense from both teams. The hosts regained momentum spearheaded by five points from Hyatt to produce a 53-51 lead with 6:01 remaining. With 2:01 left, Stonehill knocked down a pair of free throws to the 55-54 lead. Hyatt cashed two free throws to regain the one-point advantage (56-55).
The Seahawks answered with a three-pointer to put the visitors up, 58-56. Simpson later answered with a three-ball of his own to give RU the 59-58 lead with 12.3 to go.
The RU defense put the clamps on the Seahawks to secure the home victory.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement:
"Happy New Year to everyone. First, about the football game (Pinstripe Bowl). One of the greatest days that I've had here in eight years. Getting to go to Yankee Stadium and seeing Rutgers Nation out for the Pinstripe Bowl and I really want to congratulate Coach Schiano. I was up there with my whole family and it was just an awesome day to be Scarlet Knight. I thank them for that because during the season here, I don't sleep a lot and it's like every game you're on to the next one and I was worried about our guys but he gave me like three and a half or four hours of some real joy. Congratulations to the football team. I'm really proud of them and beating Miami, a great, great football program. I'm very thankful for our crowd today. They helped us a ton. Stonehill made a lot of shots. I knew once they started banking three's from the top of the key I knew it was going to be one of those kinds of knights but proud of our guys and congratulations Stonehill. They played well and I told our guys it's a dangerous team when they take 30 threes in the game and then you get a couple of them that bank in. So, to their credit, they did a good job. We did what we needed to do down the stretch. I'm proud of our guys who never flinched. Derek (Simpson) with the huge shot, Clifford Omoruyi with 17 rebounds, Aundre Hyatt playing like a veteran. We made some key stops down the stretch. Our fans were great. Really pleased to leave here today with a win. We needed number eight and we got it and we'll learn a lot from it."
On Jamichael Davis' injury:
"Obviously we need him back. He didn't practice this week. Hopefully he'll be back soon. He has a leg bone bruise and those aren't an easy injury. We miss him and hope to have him back soon."
On shot selection:
"I actually loved the shots we got today. I'm gonna watch the film. I thought we got wide open looks. We obviously need to finish some of those. I do think we're a better three point shooting team. I thought our guys got a little tentative. I liked Andre teeing them up. A couple were in and out. I want to get good shots. I don't worry about it. I want to make more free throws. That's what we've focused on. I was thankful that we got 20 offensive rebounds when you miss as much as we did but sometimes you have to win games like this when you're not making the shots you need to figure out another way. Like the old fashioned kind of Rutgers game. We got to figure out a way. I watched the tape. I thought Mawot got a great open look. I liked Andre's open shot. I think those guys can really make those shots. Noah is another guy that can make shots. I love that he teed it up. Derek at the end and a big smile after. We need to get better, obviously we need to make more free throws."
Rebounding adjustments after halftime:
"When you are taking that amount of threes, there are long rebounds. J-Mike is a long rebound track down guy. We weren't getting those long rebounds. We really wanted to talk a lot about it. We learned about it in film. Second half, we gave up four offensive rebounds. So we did a much better job in the first half, 10. You know we addressed it at halftime. We knew about going into the game to get a couple of lucky bounces. We got a couple that we had in our hands. We got to continue to get better on the backboard. That's for sure.
On causing turnovers:
"Now, we did cause a lot of turnovers too. So we got another team to commit 17 turnovers. We missed a lot of free throws and to get opportunities to rebound that we don't and they made all their free throws, I think they went 12-for-14.
On Clifford Omoruyi's 17-rebound performance:
"I love the fact that he got 17 rebounds. He just hung around there and he had some huge defensive stops for us. I think he's one of the best defenders in the country but that's a real different matchup for a guy like Cliff.
Three point shooting:
"Everyone shoots more threes against a team that plays 100% zone and quite honestly. Cliff did a good job of keeping a lot of balls live. They would double down on him at times too. They did a good job of keeping them there but he got to the free throw line like 20 times so there's a lot of points right there on the board for him. And I know he's a 75% free throw shooter so you know we could've added 25 points tonight.
On the team's shot selection:
"If we get those same shots I got a lot of confidence in our guys. Andre did a good job today. He put up 10 threes today. And I'm gonna tell you eight of them were really good and maybe a ninth one pretty good too. So I'm going to look at it and he'll look at it too. But when he gets good looks I want him to shoot it. He had a couple of looks that were in and out to down the stretch. But I will look to see if we got good looks and if we didn't we got to make some adjustments but free throws are always good looks.
On the team heading into Big Ten Play:
"We need J-Mike back too like we need anybody. But I'm excited about Big Ten play because we played Illinois, the best team in the league with the best player in the league at that time. And now we got a chance to go on the road and play a really good Ohio State team. We obviously have to play better. But I like the result today. And I like the fact that the fans stayed so they got their money's worth today. They couldn't leave early and stayed until the very end. Exciting.
On the atmosphere yesterday with the new recruiting class:
"It was great that Rutgers nation came out. Certainly very excited about these guys. I'm really excited they are all great kids and super-talented players. Excited about the future.
On Derek Simpson stepping up and hitting the game-winning shot:
"I'm just really proud of him too. He's been coming off the bench. We've got a three-guard rotation. He's a starter, obviously, and without J Mike today had to log in a ton of minutes. Noah had to log a ton of minutes, so was just really proud. I thought he was aggressive from the start. Also, a huge key to the game for them was Tony Filter number 10 is a really good player. And he was a guy who we were concerned with and these two guys between Noah and Derek, they held Tony to only 3-20 from the floor. So we took out the best players. That's always a key part of it too. So not just the shots went in for Derek. It's also the defense that you play. Derek was able to do a really good job but we have a lot of faith in Derek and a lot of confidence and I love that he T'ed it up. I love that."
Stonehill Coach Chris Kraus:
"Credit to Rutgers, Coach Pikiell is such a good coach and such a talented group nothing but respect for him. Watched him over the years and studied a lot of his stuff."
On Cliff Omoruyi:
"He is a monster. He is a professional. I am sure a lot of us will be watching him play in the league with how good, athletic and talented. He is handful and was a big part of what we were trying to stop
Postgame Notes
- This was the first meeting between the two squads. The Scarlet Knights are the first Big Ten team to ever face Stonehill.
- Head Coach Steve Pikiell earned his 125th win at the helm of RU.
- The Scarlet Knights finished 7-0 in home non-conference games in 2023-24.
- Omoruyi recorded a new career-high and team-high 20 free throw attempts in a single game.
- Omoruyi had a career-high 17 rebounds.
- Big Cliff knocked down a season-best 11 free throws at the charity stripe.
- The Scarlet Knights held the Seahawks 3-16 (18.8%) from three-point land in the first half.
- RU edged Stonehill, 48-46 on the glass.
- The Rutgers defense forced 17 turnovers which turned into 20 points on the offensive end.
- The Scarlet Knights outscored the Seahawks in transition, 12-4.
UP NEXT:
RU begins 2024 with a visit to the Schottenstein Center to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on January 3. Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM and televised on Big Ten Network.
