Rutgers men's basketball wins road thriller over Indiana
In a game with massive NCAA Tournament implications on both sides, the Rutgers men’s basketball team defeated Indiana in a 66-63 road victory yesterday night. The Scarlet Knights (17-12, 11-8) have now tied the program record for most Big Ten conference wins in a season.
The Hoosiers (18-11, 9-10) took control of the game early, as Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 9 of Indiana’s first 14 points to jump out to a 14-6 lead. Rutgers would then battle back to close the deficit but did not take the lead for the remainder of the half.
As the final seconds of the first half wound down, it looked like the Hoosiers would start the second half with a double-digit lead. Instead, senior guard Geo Baker raced up the floor and buried a three-pointer to beat the buzzer. Thanks to Baker’s timely three, the Knights trailed Indiana 32-25 at the half.
After just more than 2 minutes of play out of the break, Rutgers embarked on a 10-0 run that saw the team take its first lead since the first couple minutes. This lead would be short-lived, but with the run, the Knights kept themselves within striking distance of the lead for the rest of the game.
Trailing by 7 points with 9:52 left, Rutgers undertook another run. This time, it was a 9-2 run which was capped off by a Baker layup to tie the game with 5:30 to play. With 2 minutes to go, the Knights held a 1-point lead.
Thanks to four clutch free throws from sophomore center Clifford Omoruyi, Rutgers had a 3-point lead with 41 seconds left. Shortly after, junior guard Paul Mulcahy was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul after a foul committed by Xavier Johnson. The ejection came in a moment where the Knights could have finished off the game with a few more free throws.
As a result of Mulcahy’s ejection, sophomore forward Aundre Hyatt stepped in for Mulcahy and made two free throws from Johnson's foul to bring the lead to 5. On the other end, Miller Kopp made his two free throws from the Mulcahy flagrant foul. Also due to the Mulcahy ejection, the Hoosiers kept possession, which allowed for Parker Stewart to hit the game-tying three.
After taking the Rutgers inbound, Baker passed the ball to senior guard Ron Harper Jr., who ran up the floor and buried the game-winning shot from the left wing. It is Harper’s second game-winner this season in addition to his iconic game-winner against then-No. 1 Purdue.
“Once it left my hand, it felt really good,” Harper said after the game. “That was probably the best three I took all night. It felt like it was really in rhythm. I got good rotation on the ball, it was right on line, and I just saw it go up and was like ‘it’s good.’”
Harper finished as the Knights’ leading scorer with 19 points and five three-pointers. Behind him were Baker and Omoruyi with 13 points apiece, with Omoruyi grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds.
Rutgers entered the final 2 minutes shooting 40 percent from the free throw line but was able to knock down six consecutive free throws in crunch time. The team finished shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three.
“It takes everyone, and this team is connected,” said head coach Steve Pikiell. “We’ve had a tough, tough stretch. To get through this and to be on the road here with a big win is great for our guys.”
Jackson-Davis tied Harper for the game high with 19 points to go along with nine rebounds. Johnson and Race Thompson also scored in double-figures in what is a costly loss for Indiana in terms of NCAA Tournament seeding.
The Knights will be back at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus on Sunday for their season finale and Senior Day against Penn State. The game will tip off at noon and be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
“We knew we just had to find a way to dig deep and get a win, and we just have a fighter mentality,” Baker said. “Our mentality coming in was to ruin their Senior Night, and that’s what we did.”
For updates on the Rutgers men's basketball team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
