Rutgers Men’s Basketball Falls Short against Depaul
The Rutgers men’s basketball team took their first loss of the season 73-70 against DePaul.
The Scarlet Knights tried to make a comeback but the Blue Demons connected on their last six field goal, four of them were three pointers. Thursday night’s game was a back and forth battle with a total of 16-lead changes and 11-ties in the game.
A big difference in the game last night was free throws. The Blue Demons were able to get to the line 27 more times than the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers had 21 personal fouls where Depaul had 13.
““You can’t defend the free throw line,” Pikiell said. We fouled too much. When you are on the road, when you have disparity, I was disappointed that we didn’t rebound missed free throws.”
Ron Harper Jr and Geo Baker had big performances in this game.
Harper had his fourth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. He shot the ball pretty well as he went 6-12 from the field and 4-8 from three.
Baker did a bit of both play-making and scoring. He did his usual scoring creating his own shot off the dribble scoring 15 points and on 6-12 shooting and added six assists. Baker hit three big time three pointers living up to being the Rutgers “big shot maker”.
Back-to-back shots for @RutgersMBB's @Geo_Baker_1 🤩 pic.twitter.com/6xshWSfhl4
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) November 19, 2021
Five players scored at least nine points in the game. Paul Mulcahy scored nine points with five rebounds and Clifford Omoruyi out up 10 points as he continues to learn to be the dominant force in the middle for the Scarlet Knights. The second unit for the Scarlet Knights outscored the Blue Demons 17-8. With Aundre Hyatt adding in nine points of his own and a big three to tie the game late in the second half.
For the Blue Demons Javon Freeman-Liberty played the whole game. He had 19 points, nine rebounds and was all over the place on defense with five steals. David Jones led the way with 22 points and shot 4-6 from three.
Rutgers has some rest before their next game Monday at home against Lafayette.
