Rutgers digs in, staves off Penn State for much-needed win

Ace Bailey (4) goes up for layup as Rutgers ended recent skid with hard-fought win over Penn State. (Photo by Mike Lawrence/Rutgers Athletics)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — After Rutgers went through a two-week stretch that included four losses in five games, Steve Pikiell essentially went back to basics with his team Sunday.

The Scarlet Knights, who dropped their Big Ten Conference opener the day prior at Ohio State, reacclimated to the hard-nosed pressure defense that has long been their coach’s calling card before returning home for the second half of its conference-opening slate against Penn State. And following two spirited prep sessions Dylan Harper described as grueling, with no set starters or units, just 5-on-5 action, the intensity manifested in an 80-76 win over the Nittany Lions.

“We came back Sunday morning and we got to work,” Pikiell revealed. “We practiced hard on Sunday and they did a great job, we practiced hard Monday, they did a great job. It’s a newly assembled group, so they’re learning the value of every possession, even up to the end. It was a 10-round fight. (We had) two days to prepare, our guys kind of locked in and showed some good signs of a lot of different things. But we’ve got a long way to go, and we’ll continue to get better.”

“Every game’s a battle,” Harper remarked after leading Rutgers (6-4) with 24 points while also contributing a career-high 12 rebounds and five assists. “And for us, once we stay connected and stay together through thick and thin, I think we’re unbeatable. We’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna go toe-to-toe with anyone.”

The lessons were abound on both sides Tuesday, with Rutgers extracting every last drop of a raucous Jersey Mike’s Arena against a Penn State team whose urgency was, as head coach Mike Rhoades put it, just not good enough to prevail.

“I told these guys, the hardest thing to do—and in the Big Ten especially—is to win on the road, no matter who you play,” Rhoades lamented. “Rutgers had a couple tough games, they had a great urgency, and I told our guys how hard it was going to be. Sometimes you don’t learn that until you get smacked right in the face with it, and we did. That first half smacked us in the face. (Rutgers was) ready to play and we weren’t. We weren’t tough enough, we weren’t disciplined enough. It’s hard enough to win, but when you go on the road, you gotta have unbelievable urgency, and we learned it the hard way by taking an L.”

For Ace Bailey, the other half of Rutgers’ dynamic freshman duo, the requirement for fortitude on multiple fronts was his biggest takeaway after sampling the Big Ten buffet for the first time.

“You gotta be physical, man,” he candidly said after tallying 15 points and a personal-best 15 rebounds. “You gotta fight through it, mentally and physically. Ain’t nothing gonna come handed (to you). We’re all fighting for the same thing, so it’s like, you gotta be physical and mentally physical, too.”

Rutgers established itself early and often on the glass, something that undoubtedly pleased Pikiell after inconsistency in that area through the first month of the season. The Scarlet Knights commanded the boards to the tune of a 46-32 margin, with Bailey and Harper nearly matching Penn State’s collective carom total on their own, coming just five short of the Nittany Lions as a whole. The satisfaction was noticeable in Pikiell’s inflection as he addressed the boards almost immediately after his customary gratitude for the fans and praise for Rutgers’ football team, which usually opens each of his press conferences after home games.

“We did a good job on the backboards,” the coach proudly said. “It hasn’t been a strength of ours, so when these guys do it—and Jordan (Derkack) is a rebounder, too—I’m really happy. I loved the way we played and attacked rebounds, especially at the end.”

Rutgers will need a similar effort Saturday in the latest renewal of the Garden State Hardwood Classic against a Seton Hall team that will be just as desperate as the Scarlet Knights were Tuesday to take care of business. For the hosts, who seek to defend the Boardwalk Trophy and win back-to-back games against the Pirates for the first time since taking three straight in 2013, the task becomes somewhat lighter after a win, a feeling that is still being discovered in full.

“It was great to get back in that winning column,” Harper said. “I think for us, the four games we lost, I think we all know that we could have played better as a group, so just coming together as a team and pulling out big wins like (Tuesday) is great for us. Jeremiah Williams says it every day: We gotta learn how to win, even in practice.”