Box Score KENNESAW, Georgia. - No. 24 Rutgers was met with its toughest test of its young season Sunday afternoon, falling to Kennesaw State 79-77 in a nail-biting finish.

After seeing their first two field goal attempts go down and taking an early 9-4 lead, KSU responded with a 9-0 scoring run and never let up. They closed the half outscoring Rutgers 31-17 and took a 44-26 lead into the break. 

The Owls opened the second half with a three, which gave them their largest lead of the game at 21, but Rutgers answered with a 10-0 run of their own and quickly brought it back to within seven.

Freshman Dylan Harper directed Rutgers' late comeback attempt, putting up 17 points and five assists in 18 minutes, including numerous baskets in the clutch that gave his team plenty of momentum heading into the final stretch. Harper finished with a team-high 21 points.

Rutgers shot 50 percent in the second half (compared to 28 percent in the first) and continued to chip away at the KSU lead. The Scarlet Knights went on a quick 7-0 run to make it 76-72 with 1:04 to play before five-star Ace Bailey hit a massive three-pointer that cut the lead to 77-75 with 50 seconds left in regulation. 

Rutgers had a chance to win the game on the final possession but ultimately turned it over with seconds remaining giving KSU the upset victory. 

The Scarlet Knight defense forced 22 turnovers but only capitalized with 24 points off of them. KSU won the rebounding battle 46-27.

It was a homecoming game for Bailey and sophomore Jamichael Davis, both from Chattanooga, TN, 90 minutes from KSU, but they were not met with the welcome back they expected. Bailey finished with 17 points.

The competition doesn't let up any time soon, starting with Notre Dame in Las Vegas for the inaugural Players Era Festival tournament on Tuesday at 10:30 pm.

Postgame Notes

• The loss was RU's first in school history to Kennesaw State.
• Dylan Harper played a team-high 35 minutes.
• RU's Dylan Harper (21 points) and Ace Bailey (17 points) both scored double-digits in their first career road game. 
• RU shot 50 percent in the second half (17-34)
• Rutgers outscored KSU 51-35 in the second half to bring an 18-point deficit at halftime to a one-possession game with eight seconds remaining.
• Dylan Harper became just the third Big Ten freshman since 2004 to post at least 21 points, nine assists and two steals in the same game, joining Iowa's Jordan Bohannon (March 9, 2007) and Rutgers' Corey Sanders (February 3, 2016).

Postgame Quotes
Rutgers Men's Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell

Coach Pikiell's opening statement: 
"I want to congratulate Kennesaw; Coach Pettway does a great job. I knew we were coming into a tough environment which was all that. They have a good team too that plays with tremendous confidence. We have to figure out how to play for forty minutes, especially when we are on the road, and we didn't do a good job with that. But it's always on the coach, I thought I said enough warnings to most of our guys about going on the road and tough environments, but I have to do a better job. Congratulations to Kennesaw, they deserved to win, and when you go on the road you deserve to win, we didn't, and they did. They deserve to win, they played well, they jumped on us early, and we fought back but just not enough."

Coach Pikiell's on Kennesaw's first half: 
"In Rutgers basketball, we pass the basketball, we are terrific at passing the ball and I didn't think we did that at all in the first half. We talked about how they shoot a lot of threes and a lot of rebounds, they beat us 50-50 balls, and they have long rebounds galore. We can't do that, they are a good team, but you can't give them second opportunities because they have been scoring a zillion points. But we weren't locked in the first half, and that tremendously hurts."

Coach Pikiell's on the second-half comeback call:
"When the clock gets that low, we have to certainly make a call. They are one of the better foul-shooting teams in the country, but we had our opportunities. They would turn the ball over, we would get it back. We just have to do a better job. We lost this game at the beginning of the game, not at the end. I told them, it wasn't the team, because we have been a pretty good team for the last four games, and we know who we are. We are one of the best passing and assist teams in the country, with our assist-turnover ratio, we were just trying to do much without the ball moving and it was sticking. We have to play defense too, we have to play it for forty minutes, we showed some signs in the second half, but again that is on the coach. They did a great job and I didn't." 

Coach Pikiell's on Dylan Harper's performance:
"He's so talented and made some plays down the stretch, where he tried to really keep us close. He's a good player, but these are all new experiences, we play a lot of freshmen, which they (Kennesaw) have some good freshmen too. But when you go on the road, it's a different ball game. You try to tell these guys that, but you have to live it too. We will live from this experience; we will learn from it. Kennesaw is a good team, Coach Pettway did a really good job, in a really good environment too."

Coach Pikiell's more on Ace Bailey's performance:
"He had foul trouble, and it's probably a lot coming here and home for him, but Ace (Bailey) is a good player, and he has to live through these opportunities and experiences. I have a lot of faith in him, and I want to make sure, that he continues for us to rebound, and that's something he did not do a great job at tonight, but he will. He is a good player, and so are the rest of the guys on my team and we will bounce back."

Coach Pikiell on rebounding in upcoming games:
"You have to get off the mat, this is a big boy league with us playing Notre Dame and Alabama, and whoever else, so we don't have a lot of time to be sorry for ourselves. We have to figure it out. If we played like we played in the second half, we will be fine, but we have to play for forty minutes and that's what we have to teach them to do."

Coach Pikiell's on playing Kennesaw and lessons for the team:
 "Our whole league is a tough environment too. I talked to a couple of coaches, and they think I'm crazy for doing this kind of thing too, but I promised the kids I would bring us back home. J-Mike (Jamichael Davis) and Ace (Bailey), so I was glad we were able to do it. I didn't want this result but, when you go on the road, I was at Stonybrook University, a mid-major, and when we had teams like this come in, we were going to play our best game. I tried to relay those messages back to our guys, and again they had to make the shots they had to make the rebounds, and they did a really good job. These are tough places, Purdue is a tough place, Michigan State, now that they have a taste of it, hopefully, they can learn from it."