The result that Rutgers had sidestepped for much of its early-season home stand came on its final landmine before a daunting trip to Las Vegas.
After surviving challenges from Lehigh, Maine and American, the Scarlet Knights suffered an upset loss at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Friday night, dropping an 67-54 result to Central Connecticut State in a game the hosts trailed for 30 minutes of action.
The Blue Devils (3-2), who previously defeated Boston College in Chestnut Hill, earned their first win over Rutgers (4-1) in dominant fashion as head coach Steve Pikiell’s team struggled mightily to score and contain its visitors.
The Scarlet Knights shot 36.2% from the field, including a putrid 5-of-19 (26.3%) on threes and 9-of-18 (50%) on layups. While NJIT transfer Tariq Francis racked up 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting, the rest of his teammates scored 35 points on 14-of-42 shooting (33.3%). And unlike its previous three games, Rutgers could not get to the free throw line, knocking down 7 of its 10 attempts.
On the other end, CCSU was hot from deep (9-of-21 on threes) and efficient from the line (10-of-14); dominated the glass (7 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds) and the paint (26 points); and took advantage of 10 Rutgers turnovers, scoring 12 points off of them.
After six lead changes and five ties in the opening 10 minutes, the Blue Devils took the lead for good with 9:32 remaining in the first half. They built their advantage up to 9 points before Rutgers responded with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 1 point with 4:41 remaining until halftime.
That would be as close as the Scarlet Knights would come to turning things around.
Even as CCSU missed 15 shots over 17 attempts during a 10-minute span in the second half, Rutgers could only outscore the visitors 14-9 in that stretch, putting its deficit to 3 points with 9:08 to play.
The Blue Devils pulled away from there, outscoring Rutgers 17-7 in the final seven minutes as the Scarlet Knight missed eight of their final 10 field goal attempts.
While Pikiell experimented with wholesale changes — inserting freshmen Kaden Powers, Chris Nwuli and Lino Mark into the game for the first time early in the second half — he was unable to get his team to generate offense.
Rutgers returns to action on Monday, when it faces Tennessee in the first of three games at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. It marks the second consecutive season that the Scarlet Knights are participating in the competition.
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