Rutgers University
Cincinnati
Rutgers Hands Cincinnati 61-54 Defeat
Jan 28 | Men's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Junior wing Dane Miller (Rochester, N.Y.) had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds and freshman guard Eli Carter (Paterson, N.J.) shot 6-of-12 to score 17 points to help Rutgers (12-10, 4-5) defeat Cincinnati (15-7, 5-4) 61-54 Saturday evening at the RAC. The Scarlet Knights maintained the lead for the final 16 minutes to provide Mike Rice his 100th career head coaching victory.
Carter made 4-of-7 field goals from behind the arc, while Miller had four assists and two blocks to supplement their performances. Fifteen of Carter’s points were scored after the midpoint. Rookie point guard Myles Mack (Paterson, N.J.) joined them in double figures with 10 points and five assists.
The Scarlet Knights limited the Bearcats to 35.7 percent (20-56) shooting and also established a commanding 30-12 advantage in points scored in the paint.
Trailing 30-27 early in the second half, Rutgers used a 17-5 run to take a 44-35 lead that it would not relinquish. Carter and Mack combined for 13 points during the run with Carter hitting a pair of three-pointers. Carter made all four of his 3-point attempts following halftime after going 0-for-3 in the first half.
Rutgers built its biggest lead at 52-42 on Carter's final three-pointer before Cincinnati battled to within 56-52 with 1:39 left. After a timeout, Carter drove the baseline and fed Miller for a slam to start Rutgers on a game-ending 5-0 run.
The Bearcats missed their final five shots after getting to within four. Junior forward Austin Johnson (Elkins, Park, Pa.) hit two free throws with 24.3 seconds remaining to seal the victory for the home squad.
Dion Dixon scored 17 points and Yancy Gates added 16 for the Bearcats, who are on a three-game losing streak for the first time since 2009-10. Cincinnati suffered its second road loss in a row after winning seven straight league road games.
Rutgers returns to the hardwood Wednesday (Feb. 1) evening for a 7 p.m. tip-off at Providence. The game will be televised live nationally on ESPNU and will be available via the web at WatchESPN.com.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Head coach Mike Rice recorded career win No. 100 with the victory over Cincinnati. Rice now owns a 100-58 record through four-plus seasons as a head coach.
- This was the first win for Rutgers over Cincinnati since 2007. Prior to tonight, the Bearcats had won five-straight. RU rises to 4-12, including 3-5 in BIG EAST regular season play and 2-3 at the RAC.
- This was the shortest bench for head coach Mike Rice in BIG EAST play (eight players saw action).
- Prior to the game, Rutgers basketball honored U.S. Marine E4 Corporal Scott Hakim, who served two tours of combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Corporal Hakim, currently a student in the school of arts and sciences, earned a combat action ribbon and a purple heart while on duty.
- Eli Carter paced the Scarlet Knights in scoring for the team-leading 12th time this season with 17 points.
- Carter posted double-digits for the 17th time this season, including 15 points in the second half.
- Carter hit a career-high four three pointers.
- Dane Miller recorded his third double-double over the last six games with 10 points and 12 rebounds. The junior has nine for his career.
- Miller grabbed 10-plus rebounds for the fourth time this season and third time in the last six contests.
- Myles Mack hit double-digits for the 12th time this season with 10 points.
- RU moves to 10-2 when outshooting its opponent.
- The Scarlet Knights dominated the paint, outscoring the Bearcats 30-12 inside the key.
- The RU defense held Cincinnati to nine-of-30 (.300) shooting in the first half. Coming into the game averaging 69.9 points, the Scarlet Knights held the Bearcats to 54 points. For the game, RU held UC to .357 percent from the floor.
- Of the eight Scarlet Knights that saw action, all eight scored at least a basket with five registering seven-plus.
POSTGAME QUOTES
RUTGERS HEAD COACH MIKE RICE
Opening Statement: “Overall, I thought we got some very good performances, but as a team we had a toughness about us. We weren’t going to let it happen again. We weren’t going to let ourselves get frustrated or sad if something happened. I thought we responded very well. Now, was it as clean as I would have liked it the last three minutes of the game? Of course not, but those things we will work on. I thought as an overall performance tonight it was a gritty, tough team performance and that’s what we needed.”
On outscoring Cincinnati in the paint: “Controlling the tempo is all we talked about - making Cincinnati play five-on-five every possession. And really, because of the way they flow, their style, they (take you) one-on-one and space you out, we had to win our possessions. If there wasn’t a lot of possessions tonight, we weren’t going to be very successful, so I thought our guys did transition defense, closing out, boxing out, we did tremendously well tonight.”
On Cincinnati’s defense: “They went to more of a helter-skelter defense (at times). I think it helped us to be honest with you, (as they were) giving up layups. Our guys have to understand to pick and choose when to attack and when to put the ball out. Again, young teams do that. Gilvydas (Biruta) did a tremendous job of ripping it through, working the ball up court. We’ll work on these things and it’s a process. But again, there wasn’t a turnover, a foul, a missed shot, we stayed the course tonight. We had that toughness throughout the 40 minutes tonight, and that’s important for this team.”
On Eli Carter’s performance: (He was) very poised, very composed tonight. Against DePaul, when things go wrong, Eli’s first reaction is to dribble and make something happen. In the BIG EAST, it’s difficult because there are really good teams and really good coaches. When he got shots, it was in the flow of our offense. Our guys were screening, we had more of a flow to us and that’s important because we don’t have that all-conference-type of player that is going to get us 20 and 10 every night. We have to be versatile and play for one another. I think we did such a better job. Coaches talk about all the time, playing for one another, and we certainly did tonight.”
On Dane Miller’s performance: “Wow. He gives the young guys confidence when he does that. Whether its rebounding, toughness plays, finishing in traffic, he gives our young guys confidence. When he’s engaged like that, finishing through contact at the top of his jump, it helps.”
UC HEAD COACH MICK CRONIN
Opening Statement: “We’re soft. The going gets tough in the BIG EAST and we are not tough enough to win a game right now.”
On turnovers: “You can’t shoot the ball when you turn it over. We gave them 19 points off layups because you keep turning the ball over, throwing towards their basket – turnovers for touchdowns. Not ready to play, no mental toughness. Give Rutgers credit, they are not too good to listen to their coach, they are not too good to play hard. Right now we are too good for both things. ‘I’m too good to listen, I’m too good to play hard.’ We are too good to get a loose ball with the game on the line or even dive for it. We are too good to not let a guy shoot a three pointer in your face with one on the shot clock in a close game, their best shooter, because that would take too much effort right now.”
On being too confident after beating UConn: “I don’t know about that. You have to ask them that. I think that we are too soft and too good to play hard and not tough enough to win a game in the BIG EAST right now.”
On not getting bench production: “We are not getting much from starters too, look at the stat sheet. [Sean Kilpatrick] had five or six times around the rim when he couldn’t get [the ball] on the rim, just looking for fouls. We had five or six times at the rim, point blank, don’t get fouled or score.”
On moving forward: “I am not really worried about that right now. Right now I don’t want to be around them. I am about as embarrassed to be the coach of this team as I have ever been in coaching right now. I am miserable.”
On this being a crossroads in the season: “I think that anybody who loses three in a row in late January better decide what they are going to do. They are either going to toughen up or they are going to pack it in. I think that we have a team that has never had the respect of our opponents and now we do, hence the crowd, hence Rutgers’ effort. People respect Cincinnati, we can’t handle it, we are not tough enough. We were told that all week and it fell on deaf ears. So right now I am sick of telling guys stuff that don’t want to listen. I am going to find five guys that will listen and I will play them 40 minutes in the next game. That’s how I feel right now. We will figure it out. I will tell you one thing, I will rectify it. Next time we take we take the floor guys are going to play with some heart, hustle and toughness.”
