Box Score MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Scarlet Knights took a tough loss in Minneapolis on Thursday night.
RU surrendered a 10-point lead with 1:15 remaining on the clock. Golden Gophers forward Jameson Battle hit a game-winning buzzer-beater as the horn sounded to give Minnesota the 75-74 victory.
Rutgers was carried by a stellar night from senior guard Cam Spencer (21 points) and a career-high from junior center Clifford Omouryi (23 points).
Spencer made his first four shots from the field and Omoruyi had his 13th double-double of the season.
The Scarlet Knights return home with a chance to finish up the season (12-8) in the Big Ten for the second-consecutive season. RU hosts Northwestern at 7:30 PM at Jersey Mike’s Arena for the team’s Senior Night. Caleb McConnell will play his final game in Piscataway and Paul Mulcahy, Aundre Hyatt, Andrew Fulin and Oskar Palmquist will walk in a pregame ceremony with their families.
Postgame Quotes
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, it was a very difficult game. I knew this would be a difficult game and we didn’t finish it off. We had turnovers, some missed free throws, some bad block outs, and just didn’t finish. It’s a very difficult way to end, but I wanted to congratulate Minnesota. They’ve been hanging around in all their games and Ben (Johnson’s) done a good job. He has a ton of injuries that they’re healthy now. It’s just a tough one on the road and we had our chances, obviously, but you have to finish it off and we didn’t.
On the defensively struggles behind the 3-point line:
“Yeah, they obviously hit 11 threes. I mean, we scored plenty of points today. It’s been kind of what we’ve done sometimes in games when we score points, we just don’t defend the way we’re supposed to. I’m very disappointed in our defense and they got open. Jameson Battle had one of those nights for them too. We were really concerned with him. He was a main focus. We had two great days of prep. I thought we were very prepared. We just didn’t finish the game. We missed the free throws when we needed to and we didn’t get big stops. They got that last possession and I have no idea what happened with the clock or any of that stuff, but he made that three.
On the message to the locker…
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