Rutgers men’s basketball secured its second win in a row by holding off a late comeback to beat Penn State 85-72. The Scarlet Knights, who had a 20 point lead at one point, saw their lead shrink to single digits around the two and a half minute mark before finding their momentum again late to seal the win.
Rutgers started the game with the ball and opened up the scoring with Emmanuel Ogbole knocking in a bucket right off the tip, Cliff Omoruyi style. The Knights’ offense would click early, scoring nine
points while holding Penn State scoreless, forcing the Nittany Lions to take a timeout with just under 17 minutes left in the first half. Rutgers would not give up a point until Kayden Mingo hit a jumper with around 13 and a half minutes left to play in the first half to cut the Knights’ lead to nine. Penn State would have five turnovers before 8 minutes passed in the game. After Mingo’s lone bucket, Rutgers would go on another run, which was highlighted by a Tariq Francis three-point play, to put the Nittany Lions in a 14 point whole around the 10-minute mark in the first half.
Penn State would push the pace over the next five minutes, cutting Rutgers’ lead to 8 at one point before the Knights pushed it back out to 14 with 5 minutes left to play in the half. Dylan Grant, Lino Mark, Harun Zrno, and Francis would spark Rutgers offense late in the first half, putting the Knights up 39-20 as both teams headed to the locker room. Penn State finished the first half with 10 total turnovers, which translated to 19 points for Rutgers.
The Nittany Lions started the second half on a 6-2 run in the first 90 seconds of the first half as they tried to get back in the game. However, for every bucket Penn State scored Rutgers had an answer, keeping the lead at 19 with 15 minutes left to play in the game. Over the next five minutes, the Nittany Lions would attempt to rally, cutting the Knights lead to 12 a few times, before Rutgers pushed it back out to 17 with 10 minutes left to play. Penn State continued to push over the next 7 minutes, cutting the Knights lead to single digits with just over 2 and a half minutes left to play, however a late push by Rutgers led by Francis secured the win for the Knights.
Several Rutgers players had stellar performances in this game. Francis once again led the team in scoring with 22 points and recorded a season high 6 assists during his 32 minutes on the court. On top of that, Grant recorded 15 points while Zrno recorded 13 and Mark had 12.
The Knights were extremely effective shooting overall, hitting 57 percent for their shots from the floor, and 87 percent from the free throw line. Their three point game was a little underwhelming, shooting only 31 percent, however, they only allowed Penn State to hit 18 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. On top of that, they won the turnover battle, the rebounding battle, and were able to force forward Ivan Juric to foul out.
The two areas where Rutgers struggled were defending underneath the basket, and defending the two point shot overall, as the Nittany Lions scored 40 points in the paint and shot 55 percent from the field.
With this win, Rutgers hopes to build some momentum heading into the Big Ten tournament as they only play one more team that currently has a winning record.
The Knights will be back in action on Saturday, February 21st as they will make the road trip to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota. That game is slated for a noon tip and will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
