Rutgers University
Syracuse
Rutgers Drops BIG EAST Home Opener to Syracuse
Jan 10 | Men's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers men's basketball team dropped its BIG EAST home opener, falling to Syracuse, 68-58, on Wednesday evening at the Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC). The Scarlet Knights fell to 8-8 on the year, 1-2 in league play, while the Orangemen improved to 13-4, 2-1.
Sophomore guard Courtney Nelson (Newark, N.J.) paced the Scarlet Knights with 14 points. Senior forward Adrian Hill (Canton, Ohio) added 10 points and tied a career-best with 10 rebounds, his second double-double of the year. Sophomore forward J.R. Inman (Pamona, N.Y.) registered 10 caroms to go along with eight points.
Syracuse sophomore guard Eric Devendorf tallied a game-high 19 points, going 7-for-7 from the free throw line. Senior Demetris Nichols had 12 points for the Orange.
After falling behind 4-0, Rutgers used a 6-0 run to pull ahead 6-4 on a three-pointer from Marquis Webb at the 17:36 mark. SU answered with a 4-0 spurt before the Scarlet Knights tied the contest at 8-8 on a 10-foot jumper by Anthony Farmer (Millville, N.J.).
The Orange hit back-to-back buckets to take their largest lead of the half, 21-15, with 7:33 showing. Still trailing by six a minute later, Nelson closed the gap to 24-21 by draining a trey with 5:57 to play in the first. After a lay-up from Paul Harris pushed the advantage back to five (28-23) for the Orange, Webb calmly hit a jumper from the left baseline to cut the lead to three (28-25) just before halftime.
RU and Syracuse traded baskets the first two minutes of the second half of play, but the Orange used an 8-3 spurt to take a 41-32 advantage on another Harris basket. Rutgers went 5:37 without a field goal during the run, scoring its only three points from the charity stripe. The drought ended on a Nelson three-pointer at the 12:38 mark to cut the lead to 41-35. Syracuse reached its first double-digit lead (50-40) following a traditional three-point play from Devendorf with 9:30 on the clock.
The Scarlet Knights pulled to within eight, 50-42, with 8:56 left on a pair of free throws from Nelson. The Orange erupted on a 10-1 spurt capped off by an alley-opp by Terrence Roberts to take a commanding 60-43 lead with 4:53 remaining. Rutgers would claw back, pulling to within six (64-58) with 1:10 to play but Nichols iced the contest for the Orange with a pair from the charity stripe with 46.6 seconds to play.
Rutgers shot 29.5 percent from the field (18-of-61) and just 20.5 percent (5-of-24) from behind the arc. Syracuse shot 46.9 percent from the floor, and was 18-for-21 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line.
The Scarlet Knights will host DePaul in a BIG EAST match-up on Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC) at 4:00 p.m. The game will be televised on MSG.
POSTGAME NOTES
WITH THE LOSS'?
With the 68-58 loss to Syracuse, Rutgers drops to 8-8 on the season and 1-2 in BIG EAST play, while the Orange extends its winning streak to six games. Syracuse improves to 32-9 all-time against RU.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR HILL
Senior forward Adrian Hill recorded his second double-double of the season, and the second of his career, with 10 points and a career-tying 10 boards against the Orange. Hill's first double-double came against Lehigh on Dec. 22.
A "KNIGHT" TO REMEMBER FOR NELSON
Sophomore guard Courtney Nelson tied his career high with 14 points off the bench, a mark he set against Arizona on Dec. 30, 2004. Nelson tied his season high of nine points with 5:57 still remaining in the first half, and tied his career high at the 8:56 mark in the second half. Tonight marked the first time with Scarlet Knights the sophomore has led the team in scoring.
Nelson also tied his career mark for three pointers made, with three against SU, a number he had reached in five previous games.
BIG-TIME BLOCKER
Freshman center Hamady N'Diaye had one block against SU, and has now posted a block in 13 of RU's 16 games, including the past five games. N'Diaye leads the team in blocks, as well, with 25 on the season.
THIS AND THAT
Sophomore guard Anthony Farmer played a season-high 38 minutes, surpassing his previous high of 37, which he set against Cincinnati on Jan. 7.
Rutgers set a season-high in field goal attempts with 61 against the Orange, surpassing the previous season mark of 60 against St. Thomas Aquinas on Nov. 19.
The Rutgers defense limited Syracuse to just 68 points tonight, tying its third-lowest output of the season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Fred Hill
On the overall game:
"I thought that we got great looks, I think their defense is outstanding but we knew that coming in. I thought that we executed extremely well, we got the ball inside like we were trying to do. We put them in a tough position with foul trouble, but when we got open looks we just didn't knock them down. And against this type of team you just have to make shots."
"I thought that today we did as good a job as anybody of putting the ball inside the interior and really attacking the basket. We missed a couple lay-ups, we missed a few free throws and that's the difference in a tight ballgame."
On the defensive play:
"I thought our defense was outstanding. We mixed it up a little bit from man to zone and I thought that we defended extremely well overall. We forced them to turn the ball over, but they are so good on the glass at getting offensive rebounds and tip backs and then late in the game they really hurt us in transition. Some of it was us taking some deep shots and letting them get run outs and a little bit of it was them doing a great job attacking us off the bounce in transition. I thought that was the difference in the game - our transition defense and their transition offense. In the half court I don't think that we could play any better defensively."
On the overall progress of the team:
"I'm really pleased with where the guys are. Even today it's 15 points and we could've let it get away, but we cut it to six and gave ourselves a chance to win down the stretch. These guys give a great effort every single day and, again, you just have to make shots. We did as good a job as we could putting the ball inside and on the defensive end in the half court. I told them after the game that it comes down to little things and that's the difference and the fine line between winning and losing games."
