Not this time.
For the second time in the last three games, the Rutgers men’s basketball team held a nine-point lead with about three minutes remaining.
After suffering a heartbreaking loss against Wisconsin and subsequent blowout loss to Iowa as a possible emotional hangover, Rutgers turned around its fortunes Saturday by beating Penn State, 70-68, to earn its first ever road win in Big Ten play.
Rutgers (13-11, 2-9) was 0-23 in Big Ten road games in its first 2 1/2 seasons as a member but exacted revenge for Penn State’s win in Piscataway on New Year’s Day.
Leading by as many as 13 in the second half, Rutgers was up nine when Issa Thiam lined up an open 3 from the corner that rimmed out. Penn State pushed the ball in transition and Payton Banks drained his first shot to complete a six-point swing.
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Penn State cut its lead to four on an alley-oop and to two off a turnover before Corey Sanders rescued Rutgers yet again. He sank an off-balance 15-foot jump shot to snap a 9-0 run and later made a clutch free throw to cap the scoring.
Sanders led the way with 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, and four assists, while Deshawn Freeman (15), Mike Williams (12) and C.J. Gettys (10) all reached double-figures in scoring. Freeman pulled down eight rebounds.
Because snapping a losing streak that long is never easy, Rutgers had to sweat out the final seconds even after C.J. Gettys made two free throws to open up a 68-62 lead with 49 seconds remaining.
Those shots loomed large because missed free throws opened the door for Wisconsin’s comeback and have cost Rutgers in a handful of other games this season. The Scarlet Knights shot just 56.5 percent from the free-throw line Saturday but it was enough.
Barely.
ICYMI: Here’s how @RutgersMBB sealed its first @B1GMBBall road win. https://t.co/REYwPV4DjA
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 4, 2017
Two mistakes by Freeman — a foul that led to a three-point play under the basket and a turnover on a bounce pass that went out of bounds and led to a 3 at the other end — allowed Penn State to cut its deficit to 69-68 with 11 seconds remaining.
With no timeouts remaining for Rutgers, Sanders got free for the in-bounds pass, drew the foul and made 1-of-2 at the stripe. With a chance to force overtime or steal the win, Tony Carr, whose 17 points were second to Shep Garner’s 24 for Penn State, spun through the lane to get near the basket.
But Freeman challenged the shot and got some redemption as Carr lifted it too high and off the glass.
Rutgers did not trail after the first two minutes of play, extending a 35-29 halftime lead to 60-47 with less than eight minutes remaining. But Penn State’s 21-9 run turned into a one-point game.
Fittingly, Rutgers sealed the win on defense because that has been the team’s strong suit all season. Both of its Big Ten wins this season — a 65-64 win against Nebraska — were decided on the last possession of the game.
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