The roller coaster known as the Ace Bailey Experience took the Rutgers basketball team on some wild twists and turns at Penn State Monday, but ultimately the Scarlet Knights ended up short of their destination.
The superstar freshman wing rang up the scoreboard for 30 points, but he also racked up five fouls and two costly technicals in a 80-72 loss that blunted the momentum of a two-game winning streak. Bailey shot a stunning 13-of-15 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds, but his two techs down the stretch proved fatal. One of them led to a four-point sequence by Penn State, and the other sealed the outcome for the Nittany Lions after Rutgers had pulled within three.
Both techs took place after Bailey threw down dunks as he jawed with his opponents.
Rutgers (10-9 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) was looking for its third straight win in a desperate push to improve its NCAA Tournament resume ahead of Saturday’s showdown with eighth-ranked Michigan State (16-2) at Madison Square Garden (1:30 p.m., CBS). More than 13,000 tickets already have been sold for that contest, with the vast majority gobbled up by Rutgers faithful.
Penn State (13-6, 3-4) snapped a four-game losing streak and evened the scales after an 80-76 loss at Rutgers in December.
The Nittany Lions shot 22-of-27 from the free-throw line, compared to 11-of-14 for Rutgers. As everyone knows, Big Ten officials typically employ a pronounced home whistle. For reference, Rutgers attempted 16 more free throws than UCLA in last week’s triumph over the Bruins in Piscataway. So the foul column followed form here.
Penn State now leads the all-time series 46-38, including 10-8 as Big Ten foes. Rutgers had prevailed in four of the previous five meetings.
3 THOUGHTS
1. Turnovers and 3-point defense
You have to do just about everything right to beat a good team on the road, and Rutgers came up short in two key categories: turnovers and 3-point defense.
Penn State is known for creating chaos, and Rutgers’ 12 first-half turnovers blunted its red-hot shooting (56 percent). The Scarlet Knights went into the break trailing 37-35 when they should have been leading. They wound up committing 17 turnovers on the night, a season-high for a squad that normally excels in ball security (the average 11 per game).
Credit Nittany Lions’ star Ace Baldwin, the Big Ten’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, for creating disruption Caleb McConnell-style. Scarlet Knights fans know all too well how one aggressive, crafty defender can turn a game.
From the arc, Penn State shot 10-of-21 (47.6 percent). Too many of those were open looks. In Rutgers’ defense, this is a squad that came in shooting just 34 percent from 3-point range. And the guys who did the most damage, Baldwin and Freddie Dilione, each came in shooting 28 percent from deep. They defied the scouting report.
2. Dylan Harper slowed
The bottom line for Rutgers this season: It’s tough to win when Dylan Harper isn’t his usual self. The ace freshman point guard started off hot but suffered an apparent ankle injury while getting fouled in the first half. He limped it off but wasn’t quite the same and finished with just seven points on 3-of-11 shooting while handing out three assists.
“Dylan banged his knee,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said afterward, indicating that Bailey and centers Lathan Sommerville and Manny Ogbole also played banged up.
3. Improved rebounding
The rebounding problem that plagued the Scarlet Knights throughout the season’s first half appears to have been addressed. Their final advantages on the boards against the Nittany Lions: 34-22 overall and 10-4 on the offensive glass, leading to a 13-8 edge in second-chance points. This after going plus-8 against UCLA overall and falling just short of breaking even at Nebraska last week.
All 10 Rutgers players who checked in registered at least one rebound. Ogbole continues to perform well on the backboards, hauling in seven rebounds in just 17 minutes. Sommerville (12 points, 6 boards in 22 minutes) also had one of his better efforts in that category.
3 QUOTES
What ailed Rutgers: “You can’t turn the ball over. That’s what they (Penn State) do best. We talked about it, and we turned the ball over a lot…You can’t defend the foul line either. Turnovers and the free-throw line, that’s where this game was decided.”
On the team’s health: “We kept subbing (to deal with the injuries). It’s not where we want to be right now in light of what we’ve got ahead of us.”
On Ace Bailey: “Special. He was banged up, too, so he kind of gutted through the game and gave us tremendous energy. Just got to be smarter down the stretch.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
