PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers (9-4, 0-1) dropped a hard fought, 65-58, decision to Cincinnati (10-3, 2-0) Saturday evening at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in the Scarlet Knights’ BIG EAST opener. Junior forward Jonathan Mitchell (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds to pace the home squad in the scoring column.
Mitchell was joined in double figures by sophomore guard Mike Rosario (Jersey City, N.J.) and freshman wing Dane Miller (Henrietta, N.Y.). Rosario registered 12 points, all in the opening half, while Miller added 10 points and six rebounds.
The game featured five ties and two lead changes. Cincinnati jumped-out to a 10-2 lead. Rutgers stormed back to tie the score at 12-12 on a Rosario three-pointer with 11:15 on the clock. The Bearcats maintained a slim advantage before the Scarlet Knights closed the first half strong. Trailing 25-21, RU scored the final nine points to enter the locker room at the midpoint with a 30-25 advantage.
After the break, Rutgers held steady and increased its advantage to six points (39-33) after a pair of Mike Coburn (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) free throws. With senior center Hamady Ndiaye (Dakar, Senegal) hampered by foul troubles, the home squad struggled to match the Bearcats’ size and depth. The visitors developed a 51-46 lead, before RU battled back to tie the score at 51-51 with 6:10 remaining.
Cincinnati utilized its rebounding and bench down the stretch to score nine of the game’s next 12 points. A pair of Miller free throws got Rutgers to within four (60-56) with 44 second remaining , but the Scarlet Knights would get no closer as UC won its third consecutive game in the series.
Rutgers returns to the hardwood Wednesday evening (Jan. 6) in a 7:00 p.m. tip-off at West Virginia. The game will be televised live in the New York Metropolitan area on SNY. The Mountaineers are 11-1 and presently ranked No. 6 in the both the AP and coaches polls.
RUTGERS GAME NOTES:
· Rutgers’ 91.7 free throw percentage (11-12) is a season best. The mark is the highest Rutgers has shot while making at least 10 free throws since hitting .923 (12-13) at North Carolina on Dec. 28, 2008.
· Jonathan Mitchell’s team-high 14 points marks the sixth game this season he has scored in double digits. It is the first time Mitchell has led Rutgers in points.
· Mitchell’s game-high seven rebounds marks the third time this season he has led the team in boards.
· Mike Rosario’s 12 points marks the 12th time, and 40th out of his 45 career games, that he has scored in double digits.
· Rosario’s 12 points at halftime marked the third straight game he has scored 10-plus points by intermission. He has accomplished the feat in eight games this season and 18 times in his career.
· Rosario’s four three pointers marks the fifth time this season, and 14th time in his career, that he has hit four or more treys in a game.
· Dane Miller’s 10 points marks the third time this season he has scored in double digits.
· Hamady Ndiaye’s three blocks marks the 12th game this season, and 45th game of his career, that he has swatted three or more blocks.
· Three Scarlet Knights scored in double digits for the ninth time this season with Mitchell (14), Rosario (12) and Miller (11). Rutgers is 6-3 this season when three players score 10-plus points.
· Rutgers started Rosario, Mike Coburn, Patrick Jackson and Mitchell and Ndiaye for the fifth time this season. The group was 4-0 prior to the Cincinnati game. Mitchell and Jackson have started all 13 games this season.
· Cincinnati’s 34 points off the bench is the most scored against Rutgers by reserves this season.
· The loss drops Rutgers record to 2-13 all-time in BIG EAST openers and 3-10 in the all-time series with Bearcats.
RUTGERS HEAD COACH FRED HILL
On the difference in the game:
“I think it is a combination of a lot of things. We’re not a very good rebounding team yet. It’s something that we work on every day and we’ve got to get better at. It’s something that unfortunately is not a strong suit yet.”
“Our guards have gotten better at it (rebounding) and Dane Miller grabbed six rebounds. I thought Brian Okam gave us some very solid minutes also. It’s just something we have got to get better at. It has been our Achilles heel all year long. I think rebounding was the difference in the game especially in the second half. In the first half, we went up five (at halftime). I think our initial defense is outstanding. Whether we are in zone or man, the initial defense was great. But when you shoot it and miss it and get the rebound and put it in, that’s 50 percent. That’s what they did to us in the second half.”
On the play of sophomore guard Mike Rosario:
“Mike has to score for us and he’s going to be the focal point of every defense. They did a good job of staying home on him and not letting him get very many good looks. On the other hand, I thought his teammates did a good job of setting solid screens and getting him good looks. They just didn’t go down in the second half. In the first half, he knocked down some big shots. When you don’t rebound, you can’t run as much as we’ve been able to run in some earlier games and even against North Carolina. A lot of what Mike gets is in transition and we weren’t able to get out and run because we didn’t rebound the basketball. I thought that slowed us down tonight.”
On the amount of full-court pressure his team utilized:
“We pressed a little bit more. I thought it was very effective. We like to press after free throws, so we have to get to the free throw line. Our guys did a good job of causing some turnovers and slowing them down. Our zone also slowed them down. We had some tough matchups in the second half that didn’t allow us to play as much zone as I wanted.”
CINCINNATI HEAD COACH MICK CRONIN
Game thoughts:
“Hard fought win for us, all wins in the BIG EAST are hard fought for us, especially on the road. Rutgers gave us their best shot and we had to come from behind. There were a couple of things that changed the game for us, our offensive rebounding and obviously our bench outscoring their bench 34 to 15 points. We’re a team that has some options and we can make some changes and adjustments. It’s nice to be able to make some adjustments and play different guys.”
“Jonathan Mitchell was hurting us tonight and we had to go with Darnell Wilks, a quicker player on him. We got contributions from three different guys from the five spot. Yancy Gates really asserted himself tonight.”
“If you go up and down our lineup you will see that guys affected the game in many different ways.”
“We hadn’t seen a lot of two-three zone this year. I thought that their zone definitely had us stagnant for quite a while. We hadn’t seen a live zone situation in almost two months. We work against it in practice but it’s not the same. They had us really standing around in the zone, plus we didn’t rebound well against their zone. But once we got some offensive rebounds, got some basket, got our feet set underneath us and got set on the defensive end the game changed.”
“We didn’t let Mike Rosario score in the second half. We had three different guys guarding him. When he makes shots they are a pretty formable team.”
