Rutgers University
Louisville
Rutgers Suffers 55-37 Home Loss to Louisville
Feb 22 | Men's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers (13-14, 4-11) was never able to find its rhythm, shooting a season-low 29.5 percent (13-44), in a 55-37 loss to No. 16 Louisville (21-7, 10-5) Tuesday evening at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. Freshman forward Gilvydas Biruta (Jonava, Lithuania) was the only Scarlet Knight in double figures, shooting three-of-six to score 12 points, while also grabbing six rebounds.
The Cardinals, who made 35.3 percent (18-51) of their field goals, led from start to finish. Helped by hot shooting early, the visitors jumped-out to a 20-3 lead, before increasing their advantage to as many as 19 points (33-14) in the opening half. The Scarlet Knights posted the final five points of the opening stanza and entered the locker room at the midpoint trailing 33-19.
Rutgers continued to battle after the break and reduced the deficit to nine points (39-30) with just under 10 minutes remaining. An 11-2 run by the Cardinals followed to squelch any hopes of a comeback.
The Scarlet Knights established a 20-8 advantage in points scored in the paint and also had a 9-3 edge in fast break points.
Rutgers managed just two three-pointers, both by senior guard James Beatty (Wilmington, N.C.), while Louisville connected on 11 shots from behind the arc, including seven in the first half. Four of those triples belonged to Preston Knowles, who scored a game-high 14 points to pace the Cardinals.
The Scarlet Knights return to the hardwood this Sunday (Feb. 27) for a 12 noon tip-off versus West Virginia at the RAC. The game will be televised on SNY in the New York market and on Phl17 in the Philadelphia market. It will mark the final regular season home contest for RU and will be preceded by the annual senior day ceremony.
Postgame Notes
- With two assists, Mike Coburn ties Damon Santiago (1991-96) for No. 5 all-time in the Rutgers record book with 350 career helpers.
- For the 15thtime this season, Gilvydas Biruta notched double-figures with 12 points.
- It marked the first time since Jan. 2-8 (Villanova, Marquette, and Providence) the freshman has tallied three-consecutive double-digit games.
- James Beatty has hit at least two threes in 17 of 27 games this season, including 12 of the last 16.
- It marked the 11thtime this season, 21stof his career, that Dane Miller has led RU in rebounding.
- The Scarlet Knights assisted on seven of eight field goals in the first half, 12 of 13 for the game.
- Coming into the game averaging 10.6 points – U of L’s second leading scorer – Rutgers held Peyton Siva to two points, scoring with 1:29 to play.
- The 19 halftime points scored by Rutgers was a season low and the least since at Pittsburgh on March 6, 2010 (16). The eight field goals was also the lowest in the first half this season and the fewest since at Pitt (six).
- The seven three point field goals made by Louisville tied the most for an RU opponent this season in the first half.
- The 14-point halftime deficit was the largest in a BIG EAST game this season.
- Rutgers moves to 1-9 all-time against Louisville, including 1-3 at the RAC.
- The Scarlet Knights held the Cardinals to without a field goal for 9:18 (15:32-6:14) in the second half.
- Gilvydas Biruta drew his fifth charge of the season on Chris Smith at the 9:17 mark in the second half. When taking a charge, the Scarlet Knights are 12-7 on the year.
- Of the nine players that saw action more than one minute of action, all nine had at least two points.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Mike Rice
Opening statement:
“I just said on the radio, I should be out in the parking lot right now apologizing. It is as simple as that…It was the first time all year that guys were sad, that something was going wrong. There weren’t a whole lot of voices speaking up in the huddle…Whether it was going to the hoop with one hand when we have a fast break, whether it was a lack of purpose and execution against a match-up zone that I thought we were prepared to face, or a lack of want and need. That is on me…There were stretches of 10 minutes where I thought the guys were going to step up. We can’t have Gilvydas (Biruta) give heart to every single one of our players. He tried.”
On Louisville’s offensive rebounding zapping comeback:
“If you want to look at it that closely, (yes that hurt us). I’m more of a big picture guy. It was such a bad performance by so many individuals, including your head coach. Yes, we got it close. I don’t know what they scored the first 10 minutes of the game. There was some fight. In the end, this is a BIG EAST game.”
On discouraging loss:
“Yes, its completely discouraging…Tonight we fell down a hill. Instead of trying to climb over and seeing the top, which we’ve done so many times, the climb was too hard tonight.”
On yesterday’s practice and predicting this team:
“I was fired up yesterday. We had a great practice yesterday. I honestly don’t know (if I can predict this team). If they score, they seem to be better. If they’re scoring and shooting a better percentage (they play better). Tonight, it was not what this team was built upon. You can’t control what happens. You can control how you respond and that is the mantra. That is all we keep saying to these guys
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
Game thoughts:
“Rutgers has played great this entire year. They could have easily been a top six team in our league if they had a little luck. We’ve been lucky at times and except for the Villanova game they’ve been unlucky. In the Pittsburgh game they had them beat, the St. John’s game was played down to the wire, and at Syracuse they could have won. He’s a first year coach in this league and his players just don’t fully know his system yet. Rutgers will go through their growing pains and next year they will win all these close games.”
“We played great offense in the first ten minutes of the game and we shot ‘lights out.’ Then we stopped passing the ball thinking that we weren’t going to miss. We’re a young and inexperienced team and took some early shots, but the one constant was great defense. We’ve been playing great defense now since we have our bench again. Defense is the key, they’re going to be games on the road, or in the tournament that you don’t shoot well and the one constant has to be defense. You got to win at the defensive end and we did.”
On defending Rutgers:
“We switched up a lot ‘man to zone’and ‘zone to man’and put the pressure on a little bit. We put the pressure on the players that needed to be pressured. We sagged on the players that needed to be sagged off of, and we helped on the players that needed to be helped on. Our guys were very alert to the scouting report and how they score.”
