Rutgers Basketball snaps skid with dramatic win over Penn
Rutgers Basketball’s season has barely avoided hurdling towards full-blown disaster.
The Scarlet Knights (6-6) snapped a three-game skid on Saturday to Penn at home, also avoiding Rutgers’ seventh loss in eight games with a miraculous 70-69 victory.
Tariq Francis capped off a career-high 34 points with a game-winning three-pointer with a second left.
In an offensively-challenged game by both teams, the Scarlet Knights fell behind early and never fully got themselves back in the game until the final two minutes, trailing by as many as seven points with two minutes to play, and five with one minute left.
Francis led the way with a career-high 34 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including an incredible 15-for-19 clip from the free-throw line. He was the lone Rutgers scorer with double-digit points.
The Quakers put together a strong effort on both ends of the floor, led by 19 points and 13 rebounds from TJ Power and double-digit scoring performances from Michael Zanoni (14 points), Dalton Scantlebury (13 points), and Cam Thrower (11 points). The visitors got on the glass, outrebounding the home team 42-29. On the flip side, they also missed three key free throws late to allow Rutgers to climb back into the game and set the stage for a wild ending.
In the end, Francis made sure none of it mattered.
Rebounding struggles continue
Steve Pikiell has begun to sound like a broken record when discussing his team’s need to improve rebounding the basketball.
It has been much-needed, since the improvements have yet to show themselves.
Penn was the latest team to earn an advantage on the glass, creating extra opportunities early on to get in front.
The Quakers notched 11 offensive rebounds, and made each of them count with 18 second-chance points, compared to just four for the Scarlet Knights.
The Francis Show
Francis proved to be Rutgers’ only reliable source of offense in the opening half, as everyone else struggled badly from the floor.
The NJIT transfer scored 14 of the Scarlet Knights’ 29 points in the opening frame, on an efficient 6-for-9 shooting clip. All of Rutgers’ other players on the floor combined to shoot 6-for-21 from the floor.
Francis was able to rescue a Scarlet Knights offense that had found itself in a complete rut offensively, especially from some of its top contributors. Dylan Grant was held scoreless in the opening half with just one field goal attempt, and Rutgers’ three-point offense continued to struggle with a 1-for-11 clip in the opening half.
Without Francis’ isolation efforts and work off the dribble, the Quakers may have made the game noncompetitive in the opening half.
Stop and a score away
The story of the first half was one of just missed opportunities.
After Denis Badalau opened the game with a midrange jumper, the Quakers went on the attack and took over. They responded with a 12-2 run, taking the lead for the remainder of the first half.
From there, the two teams mostly traded blows and stayed even, the main problem being that the Scarlet Knights were unable to put a proper dent in their deficit until the later stages of the frame. Even when they did Penn was able to put together a run of its own to keep an arm’s length distance
The Quakers led by as many as eight points, minutes after Rutgers brought the game to within three points with three minutes to play in the half.
That continued into the second half, even as the Scarlet Knights fought their way back into contention.
Turnovers spark second-half run
One thing that Pikiell-coached defenses were able to do in abundance to create offense was force live-ball turnovers. This year’s iteration has not done that at the same rate, but after the Quakers took an eight-point lead in the early goings of the second half, Rutgers finally came alive in that regard.
The Scarlet Knights first forced two turnovers in Penn’s half-court offense to open up transition opportunities — including a big three from Jamichael Davis — then they got going in the full court. Grant and Francis picked off consecutive inbounds passes to get easy points and tie the game back up in an instant. The two teams once again played back and forth from there.
Even on only 12 turnovers committed by Penn, Rutgers made the opposition pay for the mistakes. It scored 21 points off those turnovers, nearly two points per giveaway, and got into its transition action quickly and effectively.
Late-game heroics
Penn seemed wholly unprepared for Rutgers’ full-court pressure for much of the second half, but it really came back to bite the Quakers in the final minutes.
The Scarlet Knights were able to draw fouls and get to the line off the turnovers, coming from behind to avoid a potential catastrophic loss.
Up next?
Rutgers Basketball gets a Christmas break for nine days until the end of nonconference play, when the Scarlet Knights host Delaware State on December 29th.
That game will tip off at 7 pm, and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
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