Protecting homecourt. Beating the teams you should beat. Gutting out close wins down the stretch. All skills needed in the meatgrinder that is the Big East, all traits Rutgers lacked last season — and all qualities the rapidly maturing Scarlet Knights finally have started showing this winter, with Thursday night the latest example.
Rutgers (12-4) pulled out a 70-67 victory over South Florida at the RAC, a come-from-behind game the Scarlet Knights admit they probably would have lost last season.
Rutgers improved to 3-2 in the Big East for the first time since 1999-2000. Tied for fourth in the conference, they are finally showing the maturity earned by all those losses.
“I’m happy with this win because this game last year we probably would’ve lost, so it’s showing how much more mature we are, how much more closer we are together,’’ senior Dane Miller said. “We understand every game is going to be a grind, a dogfight. It’s maturity, just [staying] locked-in — every possession, and just the will to win. You have to have the will to win to pull out close games.’’
The game was far closer than it should have been against South Florida (9-7, 0-4), which was coming off a 64-38 loss to Louisville. But after watching the Bulls milk the clock like a shrewd hourly employee the entire first half — Rutgers trailing 30-27 at the break — the Scarlet Knights jump-started the pace.
“The second half we brought so much more intensity,” guard Jerome Seagears said. “We just told ourselves we don’t want to lose. They’re a slow, mellowed-out team, like to use all the shot clock, so we tried to pick up the tempo.’’
Rutgers came out of the half with an 11-2 transition-fueled run, Miller finding Myles Mack for a basket that pushed the lead to 38-32 and sent South Florida into a timeout. Rutgers never trailed after that as Eli Carter’s layup giving them a 70-65 lead with 1:39 left. After Anthony Collins’ turnover with 46.1 seconds left and Martino Brock’s missed 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Scarlet Knights had held on.
Forward Wally Judge scored a team-high 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting, the beneficiary of Seagears (seven assists, no turnovers). Carter, Rutgers’ leading scorer who had shot just 4-of-25 in his prior two games, and Myles Mack each added 13.
“It was a classic Big East game,” coach Mike Rice said. “Neither team wanted to blink, neither wanted to give in. We found a way to win, and that was scoring in the paint.’’
“We found way in the second half to grind one out: That’s what every Big East game seems to be. It’s not pretty, but you have to find a way.’’
The RAC is hardly back to its once-intimidating self, but after predecessor Fred Hill was just 9-26 in Big East home games, Rice is 9-12 in league games at the RAC and his team is learning to defend homecourt.
“We’ve got to protect it,” Rice said. “If you want to do anything in this league, you’ve got to protect homecourt. We’re starting to have the feeling this ain’t going to happen to us, we’re going to protect it.’’