Rutgers men’s basketball took down Oregon 88-85 in a back-and-forth overtime thriller that saw career days from multiple Scarlet Knights. Rutgers was able to outscore the Ducks 8-5 in the last three minutes
of overtime to give themselves the win.
Regulation would start the same way it would end, as a back-and-forth affair, as neither side could get one up on their opponents. The score would remain tied at 10 with 15 minutes left to play in the first half. Then the Ducks’ offense would start to get going, pulling ahead of the Knights by four over the next five minutes. The last ten minutes of the first half would be much of the same as Oregon would push their lead to eight before heading into the lockerroom.
The Knights would come out of the locker room and start engineering offensive success of their own, as they would outscore Oregon 23-15 over the first ten minutes of the second half to tie the game up at 60. Rutgers would take the lead several times over this stretch; however, the Ducks would find a way to respond with a bucket or two of their own. The Knights would find a way to get in front of Oregon; however, for every basket they scored, the Ducks had an answer. With time expiring, a Lino Mark free throw put Rutgers up by three. However, Oregon’s Wei Lin would go right down the court and nail a three-pointer to send the game to over time.
The Ducks would seize momentum with a few quick buckets to start overtime, but they could not hold it as the Knights would go on a run late to seal the game.
The Knights showed their shooting capabilities in this one, as four players had 13 points or more. Tariq Francis had a career day for Rutgers, scoring 30 points while shooting 10 of 16 on field goals and 10 of 11 on free throws. The team as a whole shot 43 percent on field goals, 33 percent from three, and 88 percent from the free-throw line.
Other areas where the Knights excelled included turnovers, fast break points, points off turnovers, and getting to the free-throw line. Rutgers had 34 chances at the line and made 30 of them. In addition, their defense recorded 17 turnovers, 10 more than Oregon’s defense had.
The two areas that were lacking were their shooting defense and rebounding. Oregon was able to hit 41 percent of its shots from three, and scored 39 total points from beyond the arc. The Ducks also scored on 45 percent of their field goals and out-rebounded the Knights 43-32.
Rutgers will be back in action on Thursday, as they head out to Illinois to take on the No.16 Illini. Tip-off is at 8:30 with live coverage being available on Peacock.
