Rutgers Men’s Basketball Sees Streak Come to a Halt

PURDUE 84 - RUTGERS 72

Rutgers' four game winning streak against ranked Big Ten opponents came to a screeching halt on Sunday against Purdue.  Despite the fact Rutgers had four players in double-figures, Purdue just shot a little bit better, hitting on 53 percent of their shots from floor and 83 percent from the charity stripe.

Jayden Ivey proved to be too much to handle for the Scarlet Knights. The sophomore was deadly from the free-throw line, hitting on 15-of-18 attempts on a day he scored 25 points to lead both teams. Zach Eddy was also effective for the Boilermakers, hitting on 5-of-6 shots from the field, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line for a 15-point day.

Rutgers never led at any point, Sunday, although twice in the first half, RU was able to tie the game, and even widdled the deficit down to one-point with 2:08 to go in the first half, before Purdue went on a 9-1 run to close out the first half.

Paul Mulcahy led the Scarlet Knights with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Clifford Omoruyi had 14 points on 4-of-10 from the field and 6-of-9 from the charity stripe.

Ron Harper Jr. who battled a hand injury during the week, started and played 33 minutes and contributed 12 points. Geo Baker had 11 points.

With four games remaining in the regular season, the Scarlet Knights will face a Michigan Wolverine squad on Wednesday night in Ann Arbor that is in the midst of a crisis after its head coach, Juwan Howard got into a physical altercation with the Wisconsin Badgers coaching staff.

There is legitimate question whether Howard will either be suspended for the remainder of the season, if not fired from that job entirely.

After their trip to Ann Arbor, Rutgers has home games against 13th ranked Wisconsin and unranked Penn State, as well as road trip to unranked Indiana. The Scarlet Knights can really do their March Madness Tournament chances a big favor by winning three of those four games before the Big Ten Tournament begins on March 9.