Shorthanded Rutgers suffers first setback of season with incomplete game vs. Temple

Aundre Hyatt drives to basket as Rutgers battled Temple Friday. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — In recent years, Friday night’s game would normally be one in which Rutgers pulled together and won.

Backs to the wall? Two players unavailable? If the last three seasons proved anything, it was that the Scarlet Knights had a will that was indestructible, a heart that would not stop beating. 

Friday night, however, was a reality check.

With Caleb McConnell still rehabbing a knee injury, Rutgers was already anticipating his absence, but the loss of Paul Mulcahy to a shoulder injury suffered in Saturday's win over UMass Lowell proved to be near-impossible to overcome as the Scarlet Knights took their first loss of the season in a 72-66 setback to the Owls that saw a disjointed Rutgers for the first time this year and one that left points on the board with 10 missed free throw attempts and only one 3-point field goal on the night at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“We learned a lot about ourselves here today,” head coach Steve Pikiell insisted. “But we have to play better, we have to play for 40 minutes obviously. Give Temple credit, they made big plays down the stretch. We kind of had a chance, but once you spot a team like that that kind of points, things have to go perfect, and certainly, it’s a hard thing to do.”

“These are the obstacles that come with the season. There’s no excuse. I think we’re plenty good enough at all the positions, but we’ve got to come out better and ready to play no matter who’s on the court. Experience is something that you can’t replace sometimes.”

And so it was for Rutgers, trusting Derek Simpson with his first career start in place of Mulcahy. The talented freshman, who offered glimpses of his budding potential in each of the Scarlet Knights’ first three contests, went up against a bigger, stronger Temple backcourt and was harassed to the tune of just four points on 1-of-11 shooting, his lone make serving as the sole Rutgers 3-pointer inside the final minute of regulation, when the Owls had done just enough to fend off a frenetic rally from a team that trailed by as many as 19 points earlier in the evening, something Pikiell chalked up to not playing a full game and only showing up for one half.

“We’re a different kind of team and we can do a lot of different things too defensively, but we’re learning,” he conceded. “Again, they made big plays down the stretch, they made their free throws when they had to. We could have given ourselves a chance with how hard we played, but you can’t play 20 minutes against teams like this. We missed free throws, we missed threes — we were 1-for-16 from three — we didn’t make a lot of shots today. We’re learning, it’s four games in. I’m not concerned with that. I’m concerned (that) we didn’t share the ball in the first half, we spotted a team that many points, a good basketball team that was hungry.”

“I feel like this game proved we could come back and compete,” Aundre Hyatt added with regard to the late close, but concurred with his coach about a beginning that he, too, lamented. “We have to start out the game faster and more physical. I feel like this game, we started out behind and dug a big hole. We just didn’t do the job.”

Rutgers now returns home to take on a Rider team that will come to Piscataway on the heels of a two-day event in Ireland, so fatigue could be something to monitor with a possibly jet-lagged Broncs squad. Regardless, the Scarlet Knights also have some soul searching to do whether Mulcahy and McConnell are back or not.

“We’ve got to get (Mulcahy) back healthy,” said Pikiell. “He’s an important part of what we do and he’ll work to do the rehab. Hopefully we’ll have him back soon, and we miss Caleb, too. That wasn’t today. We had enough players and we have good enough guys. Aundre’s doing a fantastic job, Mawot (Mag), Cam (Spencer), Cliff (Omoruyi). We’ve got enough guys, but we just didn’t play well enough for 40 minutes to get this one.”