Rutgers men’s basketball was routed in the Garden State Hardwood Classic by rival Seton Hall 81-59. Turnovers and dominance in the paint allowed the Pirates to secure a 22-point victory.
Both teams started
the game scoreless through the first minute of the game before Seton Hall would capitalize on three turnovers and turn them into three straight baskets. Rutgers would have five turnovers before three minutes passed in the first half. The Pirates would build an 11-point lead before the Knights would get on the board, off a Harun Zrno free throw. Rutgers would not make their first field goal until there were just under 14 minutes left to play in the first half. The Knights would claw their way back, cutting Seton Hall’s lead to three and forcing Pirates head coach Shaheen Holloway to call a timeout with around 10 minutes left to go in the half.
Over the next five minutes, both teams would trade buckets, with the Pirates holding a four-point lead with five minutes left to go in the first half. Right after the five-minute mark, Seton Hall’s Aj Stanton-McCray would get a three-point play off of an Emmanuel Ogbole foul. From then on, the Pirates would start raining shots down on Rutgers, going on a 17-4 run to close out the half up 35-21.
The Knights’ Dylan Grant would hit a jump shot to cut the Pirates’ lead to 10 with just over 15 minutes left to play in the game. Both teams would trade shots several times before Tariq Francis would drain a three-pointer to cut Seton Hall’s lead to 8 with just under 11 minutes to play. The Pirates would respond immediately with three of their own, pushing their lead back to 11. From then on, Seton Hall would slowly pull away to beat the Knights convincingly.
The Pirates held a lead over the Knights for the entire game. On top of that, they dominated Rutgers in most statistics and hit several poster-worthy shots on their way to a 22-point victory. A few of the most glaring statistical mismatches are the fact that Seton Hall won the battle in the paint by 27 points and that they scored 21 points off of 18 Rutgers turnovers. The Knights’ 18 turnovers in this game are the most the team has committed all season.
Freshman Forward Najai Hines would have a career day for the Pirates, totalling 10 points, six rebounds, and four blocks on the night.
One positive thing about the Knights’ performance is that they were able to keep the Pirates’ three-point shooting under 30 percent for most of the game. Rutgers, on the other hand, would hit 40 percent of its shots from three.
Zrno would score the most points of his collegiate career in this game, scoring a team-leading 15 points in the losing effort.
The Garden State Hardwood Trophy will call Newark home for the first time since 2022.
The Knights will be back in action on December 20th at home against Penn at 8 pm. Live coverage will be available on BTN.
