Piscataway, N.J- The Scarlet Knights honored their three seniors Tyson Acuff, PJ Hayes IV, and Zach Martini during the pregame before taking conference foe on the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
This matchup is the last game of the season for the Scarlet Knights before heading into the Big Ten Tournament.
Jersey Mike’s Arena was filled with yet another sold out crowd and the fans brought the energy in what could be the last time Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. The crowd’s energy gave the Scarlet Knights life in the first half of the matchup as they would jump out to an early lead of nine points to end in the second half.
In the second half Minnesota would attempt to make a comeback as they took the lead with just under two minutes left in the second half, but the Scarlet Knights did not quit. They got contributions from Jordan Derkack as he made two free throws to put them up one point with a minute left in the game, the Golden Gophers would hit another free throw to tie the game but that was countered by Dylan Harper who made a two point shot to put Rutgers up two with 20 seconds to go. Minnesota would come down the court after a timeout and tie the game again with a two point shot from Dawson Garcia, Rutgers would get the chance to win the ball game at the end of regulation but the ball was turned over by Dylan Harper with three seconds left which caused the game to go into overtime.
After his late turnover Dylan was in attack mode starting the overtime period scoring six points, he would finish the night with 22 points as the Scarlet Knights earned the victory by a score of 75-67.
Minnesota Head Coach Ben Johnson had high praise for Harper for his performance against his team “Just watching him on film, you know how good he is, how talented he is… his pace was good, he uses his size well”, said Johnson.
With the win against Minnesota the Rutgers Scarlet Knights finish the season 15-16, as Coach Pikiell said in his post game press conference “We just completed the number one strength of schedule in the Big 10… we’re able to get a win here on senior day, proud of our guys we have a new season starting here within the next 15 minutes but we’re going to enjoy these 15 minutes,” said Coach Pikiell.
The Scarlet Knights will shift their focus to the Big 10 tournament as they will travel to the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana to take on the USC Trojans on Wednesday as they’ll look to advance and make a run to win the tournament.
“It’s a new season… we’ve got a chance just like everybody else… These guys have gotten better, if you throw away the Purdue game down the stretch we’ve played some pretty good basketball,” said Pikiell.
