Box Score CHAMPAIGN, ILL. – Rutgers men's basketball took a tough loss on the road on Saturday.

The Scarlet Knights were defeated 69-60 at the State Farm Center by Illinois. Rutgers started the game on an 11-6 run and held an eight-point lead with 12:38 remaining in the first half. The Fighting Illini went on a 19-0 run ending with 6:45 in the second half to overcome a four point lead by the Scarlet Knights at halftime. RU had four players in double-digits in Caleb McConnell (14 points), Clifford Omoruyi (14 points), Aundre Hyatt (12 points) and Paul Mulcahy (12 points).

Rutgers returns back home on Tuesday night to take on Nebraksa at 8 PM.

Team Notes 

• Rutgers held Illinois to 69 points, lower than their 75.2 points per game average entering. RU has held 23 of its 25 opponents to date under their scoring average.  
• Rutgers has yet to win a Big Ten game this season when allowing more than 65 points 
  • (RU is undefeated in the conference when holding their league foe to 65 or fewer). 

Individual Notes 

• Cliff Omoruyi has 105 career blocks, moving past JR Inman for 10^th all-time at RU.  
  • Cliff had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his 10^th double-double of the season
• Cam Spencer now has 59 steals the season, now in 8^th on RU's single season steals list.  
• Caleb McConnell's five steals tied for the second most ever in a Big Ten game by a RU player. McConnell's career-high of six steals vs. Wisconsin in 2022 was the most ever.  
  • McConnell is just one steal shy of becoming the third Rutgers' player ever with 200 career steals. 
• Dean Reiber's five rebounds tied his career-high and were his most ever in a Big Ten game.

Postgame Quotes

Rutgers' Head Coach Steve Pikiell

Opening Statement:

"We played a good 31 minutes of basketball today. Illinois played great the last nine minutes and we didn't. I am looking forward to a home game.  It's been three on the road here and we've got to play better on the road for sure. We didn't shoot it the way we liked and didn't execute in the last nine minutes especially. They got us on the backboards and gave up 48 percent for the game, which is not a recipe on the road against a really good team. But you have to give Illinois credit. Their big guys bothered us around the basket. Cliff (Omoruyi) got into foul trouble. They scored points around the rim and they've got some good players. Coleman Hawkins was a problem all night. Dainja just started and got them off to a good start. Terrence Shannon is a good player. We just have to play better than that on the road. 
 
On how to keep Clifford Omoruyi on the floor and limit foul trouble:

"He's been pretty good this whole season. That wasn't his strength as a freshman, you guys know that. He just got a couple of careless ones out of frustration. We just got to do a better job of keeping them on the floor and you're right, we were plus-11 at one point and we go into halftime just plus-4. They got us on second shots, and therefore they're going to get to the foul line too, because that's always a recipe for the free throw line. So, we've got to just do a better job. He knows that and he knows how important he is. But you can't certainly do that on the road and have him out in the game like this."
 
On the scoreless 10 minutes in the second half and what went wrong: 

"Yeah, I think it's a combination. Obviously you don't want to go any stretch (without scoring). But our defense could have still helped us and I'm just really disappointed. We got to keep them ten points under their average. Their average is 70  and they got 69 points. We got to make sure if we're not making baskets, that we're not giving them any baskets. So we've been in that spot many times this year. If we can't score, they can't score and that's what we didn't do. Especially in the last nine minutes of this game."
 
On Cam Spencer's shooting numbers today:

"You always have to give the other team a little credit. They got tremendous length. And Cam, they're loading up on him now, too. I'd love to get him more involved, but I thought we did when we got good looks. We got some layups. We got a couple of breakaways. I mean we had opportunities to score, it's never going to be easy for him. They're always going to put a bigger guy on him. We got to do a much better job to get them involved through some of our pin down action. We have plenty of opportunities today in that area and he got a couple of good looks too."
 
On lack of fastbreak points despite forcing turnovers:

"Obviously they're the fourth best shot blocking team in the country. They're number one in our league, they bothered us at the rim. You almost have to go through them. You've got to try to dunk the ball. Even if you get a charge on something like that, you;ve got to finish with tremendous toughness around that basket, to their credit. Myers will block shots, Coleman Hawkins is long, Danger has long arms and reminds me of Myles Johnson. He can really block shots, Terrence Shannon, got three tonight too. He's athletic as can be. We got to finish better around the rim, and finish through some contact and we didn't."
 
On the progress of adjusting without Mawot Mag:

"We had one practice before Indiana, which obviously is not a lot. We had two practices here in Illinois. It's going to just take us a little time. We need some practice time without him and like you said, those guys are stepping up bigger roles. He was a 25-to-30 minute guy and he helped our defense too in a lot of ways, but it's no excuse. These guys are plenty good enough. Dean (Reiber's) got to play more minutes and Antoine Woolfolk. Oskar Palmquist has been coming in giving us some really good minutes too. They just gotta get more comfortable with longer stretches and they've got to do more for us."
 
On confidence and trust in other players when Cliff Omoruyi is in foul trouble:

"I have tremendous trust. Dean (Reiber) played really good minutes for us today. I thought he had some good looks today. He got to steal. The break when he got a wide open three, you know if a couple of those go in. He got five rebounds. He's playing against some good players. Wolf (Antwone Woofolk)  is just young and he's gonna be good. I have tremendous trust in those guys. Do I want to keep Cliff (Omoruyi) on the floor? Of course I do. When he doesn't, I've got trust in this whole bench. I think Derek Simpson is going to be a really good player. I like the way Oskar (Palmquist) has stepped up and given us some good minutes. We are going to need them all, it's the grind of the year. It's three road games in a row, we got to keep fighting through this. We get on another plane now and head back home. It'll be nice to play at Jersey Mike's Arena coming up here."
 
On importance of Tuesday's game against Nebraska:

"In this league every game is important. Every team is really good. You see where the records are of everybody. Every game is important. It's not more important than the next. They are all important. This game was important today, too. We just got to get back to playing our kind of defense, and sharing the ball a little bit better. Especially in the second half. We played, again, a good 31 minutes. We were not good enough on the road against a good Illinois team."