PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball is back on the road on Monday night, playing at Penn State. It represents the first Big Ten opponent that RU will play for a second time this season. The game is on Peacock, starting at 6:30 pm. One of two bus trips in the league for RU, the Scarlet Knights will travel 227 miles across Pennsylvania for the contest after returning from a 1,308 mile flight to Nebraska for the previous contest.
Rutgers enters the game on a two-game winning streak following victories over UCLA and at Nebraska (85-82 on Thursday night, a Quad 1 win and the team's first true road win of the season). The Scarlet Knights are now 3-4 in league play and 10-8 overall, part of a crowded middle section of the league standings that sees 12 teams with between 2 and 4 conference victories in the early going.
Against the Cornhuskers, Rutgers was led by freshmen, with
Ace Bailey (24),
Dylan Harper (21) and
Dylan Grant (15) combining for 60 of the team's 85 points as RU downed the Huskers to snap the team's 20-game home winning streak. Rutgers offense produced a Big Ten record 12 three-pointers en route to the 85 points, the most points in regulation against a Big Ten team since February of 2023.
Ace Bailey had his sixth double-double of the season with 24 points and 11 rebounds, along with four assists, three blocks and a steal. He was the first freshmen to reach that stat line since 2021, and it had only been done by a freshman eight times previously since 2005, and six of those times done by an NBA First Round Draft Pick, five of them top-2 picks (Greg Oden, Ben Simmons, Deandre Ayton, Zion Williamson, Michael Beasley).
Dylan Harper posted 21 points, 14 of them coming in the second half, recording his first 20-point game since Dec. 21 after scoring 20+ points in 10 of the first 12 games. It marked the third time this season Harper and Bailey each scored 20+ points in the same game (Alabama, Seton Hall) and the first time since Dec. 14.
Harper (20.1 ppg) and Bailey (19.3 ppg) remain the top two freshmen scorers in the nation. They are first and third, respectively, in the Big Ten. No other freshmen are in the top-10 in the league in scoring.
Grant's 15 points was a career-high and continued his breakout week. After playing just 20 minutes across three games in the first 14 games of the season, Grant is 14-of-23 from the field (61%) across the last four games, scoring 33 points in 77 minutes of action.
Rutgers also got key contributions in the Nebraska game from off the bench.
Zach Martini scored 11 points after posting just 15 combined points in the previous 10 games total.
Emmanuel Ogbole hauled in 11 rebounds, surpassing his previous career-high by three.
RU, who has never averaged more than 69 points per game under head coach
Steve Pikiell, is averaging 76.8 points per game this season. The last time RU averaged over 70 points per game was 2013-14 (71.1 ppg). RU has averaged over 70 points per game for a full season just that one time since the start of the 2001-02 season.
After dropping a 90-85 decision at No. 12 Michigan State Wednesday, Penn State stands at 12-5 overall and 2-4 in league play. Since falling at RU in December, PSU is 4-4, with a current four-game losing skid to No. 12 Michigan State, No. 15 Oregon, No. 13 Illinois and Indiana. Second year head coach Mike Rhodes is 28-23 at Penn State and 401-212 in his career across 22 seasons at four schools (Penn State, VCU, Rice and Randolph-Macon).
Offensively, Penn State is 18
th in the country at 84.4 points per game. The team is also top-30 in the nation in assists (17.2) and field goal percentage (48.%). Defensively, the Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten in steals (9.3) and are second in turnovers forced (16.06)
PSU has four players averaging between 10.2 and 14.2 points per game. Ace Baldwin is second in the country from the free throw line (94.2%), fourth nationally with 8.1 assists per game, sixth in the league in steals (1.88) and leading the team with 14.2 points per game. Yanic Konan Niederhauser is 10
th in the country with 41 blocks.
Penn State leads the all-time series, 45-38, against Rutgers. RU has won four of the past five games in the series and are 8-9 against the Nittany Lions as conference foes since joining the Big Ten in 2015. The 38 wins over PSU is the fourth most wins for the program against any one foe, and most over any Big Ten team (behind just Lehigh, Lafayette and Princeton).
Rutgers and Penn State played earlier this season on December 10 at Jersey Mike's Arena , with the Scarlet Knights taking their first Big Ten win of the season with a 80-76 victory. RU built a 15-point halftime lead in that game, and withstood a second half charge from the Nittany Lions for the win. In that game,
Dylan Harper (24 points, 11 rebounds) and
Ace Bailey (15 points, 15 rebounds) each posted a double-double.
- Five wins in the past six games against PSU
- First home-and-home sweep of the season
- Five wins in the past six games against Penn State
- Three game winning streak, the second of the season and first against all Big Ten teams since last February (Maryland, Wisconsin, Northwestern)
Rutgers' next game comes at Madison Square Garden. The Scarlet Knights head to New York City on Saturday to face No. 12 Michigan State at 1:30 pm. Following that, RU heads back to the road to play at Northwestern.
