College Basketball

Gibbs’ career high lifts Seton Hall over Rutgers

Kevin Willard made a big splash by putting together next year’s nationally ranked recruiting class.

But maybe not enough attention was given to the addition of Sterling Gibbs, the local product and Texas transfer who opted to come home after one year in the Lone Star State.

Gibbs made the absence of leading scorer Fuquan Edwin (sprained right ankle) a moot point Sunday night, as Seton Hall won the first non-league game against Rutgers since 1993, 77-71, in front of 5,210 at the RAC.

Aggressive yet unselfish and making quick decisions with the ball, Gibbs was the best player on the floor, scoring a career-high 27 points on just 12 shots while adding four rebounds and four assists.

“He’s a huge difference,” Willard said. “His aggressiveness has been great. He’s starting to understand when to be aggressive, when not to be. … I’m really happy with everything he’s doing this year.”

After reaching double figures in four of his first five games, including a 26-point effort against Oklahoma, the 6-foot-2 Gibbs had struggled of late. He scored just three points in an embarrassing loss to Fairleigh Dickinson, but he got going again in a win over LIU Brooklyn on Thursday with 16 points and was at his best against Rutgers (4-6).

“It was a lot of fun, I love competition,” he said of playing in his first Rutgers-Seton Hall game. “You see a lot of the Rutgers guys around, you see them at the mall. We’re friends with a lot of them. It’s always nice to win those types of games so you don’t have to [hear] trash talk, you can do the trash talk.”

Senior forward Eugene Teague made the most of his size advantage in the paint, with 16 points, 16 rebounds, five steals and four assists, and junior forward Brandon Mobley notched 11 points for Seton Hall (6-3).

It was another frustrating night for Rutgers, which has now dropped three in a row and five of six. The Scarlet Knights were unable to take advantage of the depleted Hall, which was without Edwin, forward Patrik Auda (sprained foot) and wing Brian Oliver for the final 7:22 after he was ejected for a flagrant-two foul.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to resurrect the entire team, the program,” Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan said. “This is one of the bumps you gotta get through.”

Myles Mack led Rutgers with 20 points and Jerome Seagears added 18.

Trailing the entire way, Rutgers could never get over the hump. The Scarlet Knights cut a 12-point deficit to four with 6:10 remaining, but went cold and saw it balloon back to 11. They answered with a 12-2 run, but Gibbs hit four straight free throws down the stretch while Rutgers misfired to ice it.

The only negative Willard took from the contest was its timing. He would prefer to avoid an NFL Sunday, and have the showdown earlier in the day, to celebrate the rivalry.

“We as coaches have to do a better job giving it a little bit better justice,” Willard said.