PISCATAWAY -- Rutgers closed out the regular season with a 75-67 win over Minnesota Sunday afternoon.

The Scarlet Knights began Senior Day festivities by honoring PJ Hayes, Tyson Acuff, and Zach Martini along with eight student managers in a pregame ceremony. Rutgers nation applauded the seniors while they walked arm in arm with friends and family to center court.

Freshman Dylan Grant got the scoring started with an offensive rebound and putback slam. He finished with 12 points on perfect shooting and added six rebounds. Five-star Dylan Harper earned nine of his game-high 22 points in the first half, giving Rutgers a 38-29 advantage. Harper passed Mike Rosario for the most points by a freshman in Rutgers history

Captains Jeremiah Williams and Martini had strong moves attacking the rim to keep RU in front at the under-16 media timeout.

Minnesota responded with a 19-4 scoring run that put the Gophers in front 49-46 with less than 10 minutes left. It stayed a one-possession game for the remainder of the match.

With under 30 seconds and the game tied, Harper drove to the basket, pump-faked, spun around his defender, and finished at the rim for a two-point RU lead. 

Minnesota's Dawson Garcia hit a jumper to tie the game with eight seconds left in regulation. He finished with a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds.

There were 10 ties and 16 lead changes throughout the match heading into overtime.

Harper and his five-star counterpart Ace Bailey each converted tough baskets to put RU back in front. Ultimately, RU outscored Minnesota 14-6 in overtime.

Freshman Lathan Sommerville, sophomore Jordan Derkack, and Williams each added eight points in the win.

Rutgers scored 20 second chance off 11 offensive rebounds and scored 44 of its 75 points in the paint.

Rutgers finishes the regular season 15-16 overall (8-12 in conference play) and has earned the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament where they'll tip off against No. 14 USC at 8:30 pm on Peacock. The tournament takes place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Postgame Notes
 
Freshman Scoring Record

• Dylan Harper took over the Rutgers' all-time freshman scoring record. With (537 points, he passed Mike Rosario's 2008-09 season.
• Ace Bailey now has 510 points. He moved past Phil Sellers and stands third behind Harper and Rosario

Dylan Harper, with 537 points in the season, has the most points for any Scarlet Knight since Quincy Douby scored 839 points in his final Scarlet Knights' campaign in 2005-06.
Harper's 22 points represented his 19th 20-plus point game of the year.

• Minnesota's 67 points were the second-lowest by a Big Ten opponent this season
• Minnesota made just two three-pointers, the fewest by any RU opponent this season
• Dylan Grant had his third double-figure scoring game of the season.  
• Zach Martini was rewarded with the starting assignment on Senior Day.
  • It was Martini's seventh start of the year and first since Jan. 2
• Rutgers' starting lineup of Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, Jeremiah Williams, Dylan Grant and Zach Martini represented the 12th unique starting lineup of the season
• Lathan Sommerville shot 4-of-4 at the free throw line. Dating back to Feb. 16, he is 26-of-26 at the free throw line.
• Rutgers played its third overtime game of the season. Previously, RU won in OT against Notre Dame (in Las Vegas) and at Washington, and now improves to 3-0 in the extra session this year.

Postgame Quotes
 
Rutgers Head coach Steve Pikiell Opening Statement:

"I want to thank everyone for being here. The crowd was great for senior day. PJ (Hayes) has been awesome to coach. Along with Zach (Martini) and Tyson (Acuff). They have been awesome. I only wish I had longer with them. We bounced back from the Purdue game. These guys have taken a lot from me the last few days, and I am glad with how they have responded. We made plays down the stretch, but our crowd was awesome. This is the 78th straight sell out. Our band, dance team, and cheerleaders were amazing. We just completed the #1 strength schedule against the Fourth oldest team in the country (Minnesota)."
 
Pikiell on what was said during huddle pre-overtime:

"We have been there before. This league we play in is as good as any. Minnesota is good. But, we just got in the huddle and I told my guys that we have five more minutes, and luckily they responded with great energy and continued making plays. Zach Martini was great the whole game. Jeremiah Williams was extremely vocal, and that is exactly what we needed from him. Ace Bailey gave us nine rebounds and Dylan Grant went 5-for-5 against Dawson Garcia. Everyone chipped in, that is what we discussed."
 
Pikiell on defense:

"Minnesota is good. They had a four-game winning streak. We were just trying to take away their Threes (Minnesota went 2 for 16 in threes). We were really locked in toward the end of the game, especially defensively. We did not score as we usually do, but we figured out a way to win and stopping them from taking threes was one of the things we wanted to do."
 
Pikiell on Dylan Harper:

"Dylan (Harper) called a couple of those plays himself. I like when he is that engaged and takes control. We played through foul trouble, but I trust him. It is good to have a guy like that who can get you some emergency points."
 
Pikiell on biggest lesson this season:

"I will think about it more toward the end of the season. I will say the league is exceptional and we only play teams once. It is a hard league. Sometimes the second go-around brings a way where we can teach and make adjustments. You learn a lot from every season. The personality from this season helped us score points, defend, and renowned. They have been great coach. So, I will think about this after the season. We still have a long way to go."

Pikiell's message to the team:

"It's a new season. The regular season is over. Everyone is 0-0, and we have a new chance. We try to get our guys to learn from their lessons. Going to a neutral site may be good for us. Our guys have gotten better. We have played some great basketball. We have been on a nice run here. We are excited for that tournament, and we will go from there."
 
Dylan Harper on giving back to fans:

"I love giving back to the kids; to the community. This was not the first time that I have waited after a game to speak to the media or fans. It means a lot to make their day. They come out here to watch us play, so why not take a few minutes out of my day to make their day worth it?"

Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson on Dylan Harper:

"Obviously just watching my film and how talented he is, I think what he does a great job with is his pace. He uses his size well, just being able to put guys in jail and keep two on the ball. He has a change of speed that is real deceptive and allows that hesitation and go, which we saw in film and talked about, that allows him to get that next dribble and now he is at the rim. You kind of got him corralled and then he has that hesitation, slow little pace to him and then that next burst and he is at the rim. He has really good body control and obviously is able to finish in traffic. We wanted to make him work for each shot, I think he took 19 of them, you have to live with the results after that. I thought our guys, especially in the second half, did a good job on him and I thought we did a really good job on Ace Bailey."
 
Johnson on Rutgers defending Dawson Garcia:

"Most teams load up the box and provide a lot of help. It is tough to find ways to get him to the left hand, or get him the space downhill. Rutgers does a good job with help defense in general. You try to find ways to move around the floor. I thought some of the turnovers that we had were a little bit of them, but I thought some of it was us just playing loose and playing off balance.
 
Ben Johnson on the Rutgers fans:

"They have an outstanding home crowd, so we tried to take the crowd out of it early as best as we could."