New on Sports Illustrated: No. 11 Rutgers looks to bounce back vs. Purdue

The first two conference games went well for No. 11 Rutgers. The third did not, especially in the second half.

The Scarlet Knights (6-1, 2-1 Big Ten) look to rebound from their first loss of the season when they host the Purdue Boilermakers (7-3, 2-1) on Tuesday night in Piscataway, N.J.

Rutgers won its first five games by double digits and opened league play with a 74-60 win at Maryland on Dec. 14. The Scarlet Knights improved to 6-0 by pulling out a 91-88 win over then-No. 13 Illinois on Dec. 20 but were unable to duplicate their performances Wednesday and took an 80-68 loss at No. 23 Ohio State.

Rutgers held a 38-28 lead at halftime and led by 16 in the second half, but went eight minutes without a field goal while enduring a 20-1 run by the Buckeyes.

"Sometimes you have to adjust in the middle of all the obstacles," Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. "Today we had a lot of obstacles thrown at us. This is a tough league. We'll learn from it and bounce back."

The Scarlet Knights hope by Tuesday they will not be playing short-handed.

Standout freshman Cliff Omoruyi missed the game with a knee injury and Myles Johnson, who averages 8.6 rebounds, played 15 minutes before fouling out.

"We'll have to be more creative with our lineup when guys are out," Pikiell said. "We have to do a better job."

One thing the Scarlet Knights are banking on is another standout performance from Ron Harper Jr., whose 23.4 points per game ranked fourth in the league as of Sunday. Harper scored 20 points against Ohio State, his fifth game with at least 20 points this season.

Harper also hit four 3-pointers at Ohio State and is shooting 50 percent (25 of 50) from long distance this season.

Purdue enters Tuesday with the second-lowest scoring offense in the league at 72.5 points per game and has yet to score more than 75 points in any Big Ten game. The Boilermakers rebounded from a 70-55 loss at Iowa on Tuesday by posting a 73-70 home win over Maryland on Friday.

"We have to be more consistent I think that would be fair," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "I think there's a fine line when you find ways to win and last year we had some games where we didn't find ways to win where something would happen you'd crumble."

The Boilermakers beat Maryland by hitting 10 of 22 3-point tries despite a quiet game from Sasha Stefanovic. Stefanovic leads the Big Ten in 3-point percentage at 50.9 percent (29 of 57) but was held to five points and took just one shot in 30 minutes.

Instead, Purdue got 17 points from Brandon Newman and 16 from Eric Hunter Jr. Newman made three 3-pointers and Hunter made the go-ahead basket on a goaltending call with 38.4 seconds left after Purdue led by 13 at halftime.

"Tonight, it was making shots but our next game against Rutgers, it could be defending, it could be rebounding," Newman said.

Rutgers lost the first eight meetings against Purdue after joining the Big Ten before sweeping the series last season. The Scarlet Knights posted a 70-63 home win on Jan. 28 and recorded a 71-68 overtime win at Purdue on March 7.

--Field Level Media