Sports

Freshman Etou’s late heroics fuel Rutgers

PISCATAWAY — If there was one word that could be used to best describe Rutgers’ conference opener against the Temple Owls, it would be “new.”

Wednesday marked the first day of 2014. It also marked the Scarlet Knights’ first game as a member of the American Athletic Conference, where the team will play this season before moving on to the Big Ten.

With novelty present throughout the evening’s proceedings, it was only fitting the game-winning basket was scored by one of the team’s newest players — freshman Junior Etou.

The 6-foot-7 forward converted a three-point play on a driving layup with 41 seconds remaining to give Rutgers (7-7, 1-0) the lead for good, and the Scarlet Knights held on for a 71-66 victory — their first win in a conference opener since defeating Seton Hall on Jan. 7, 2006 and their third straight overall.

“He didn’t look like a freshman there,” guard J.J. Moore (12 points) said. “He’s come a long way.”

“It was clutch basketball,” coach Eddie Jordan said. “Just play-making, making a shot, making a free throw.”

Etou’s game-winning play served as the final swing of momentum in a back-and-forth contest, one that saw the Scarlet Knights hold a seven-point lead with 10:50 to go before Temple guard Dalton Pepper single-handedly brought the Owls back into the game.

Pepper, a West Virginia transfer, reeled off 19 consecutive points to give Temple (5-6, 0-1) a 61-59 lead with 4:40 remaining. Making the surge more improbable was the fact he went scoreless in the first half.

A pair of Anthony Lee free throws broke his teammate’s streak, and his put-back with 54 ticks left gave Temple a 66-65 lead, setting the stage for Etou’s heroics.

Though the game was tied at the half, it was the Owls who controlled play throughout much of the early stages, leading by as many as eight points largely on the strength of sophomore guard Quenton DeCosey, a native of nearby Union, N.J.

DeCosey scored 17 of his 25 points in the first half, and Judge paced Rutgers with eight points.

Kadeem Jack shook off a slow start to finish with a team-high 18 points for the Scarlet Knights, one of four Rutgers players to finish in double figures, along with Moore, Wally Judge, and point guard Myles Mack.

Jordan said he was pleased with the team’s response after blowing a second-half lead and facing the prospect of losing its eighth consecutive conference opener with No. 14 ranked Louisville coming to town on Saturday.

“I told the team after the game that we made a ton of clutch plays,” he said. “Not just a shot, not just a free throw, but a stop, a rebound, play-making, clutch game-planning and execution.”