PISCATAWAY, N.J.- The Caldwell University men's basketball team battled Division I Rutgers University but the Cougars fell on the road to the Scarlet Knights 94-49 in a non-conference contest.
The Cougars fall to 6-6 overall, while the Scarlet Knights improve to 10-3.
The Cougars trailed 9-8 five minutes into the game as sophomore
Anthony Cooper (Ashburn, Va.) drained a triple at the 15:43 mark. Cooper shot 2-for-4 from downtown in the half as Caldwell trailed 42-23 at halftime.
Caldwell got as close as 47-27 early in the second half but a 13-5 Rutgers run opened up a 60-32 lead for the Scarlet Knights near the midway point of the second half.
The loss snaps the Cougars two-game regular season win streak against Division I opponents dating back to 2014. Caldwell defeated Norfolk St. University earlier this season and knocked off Binghamton University in the 2014-15 season.
Senior
Ruud Lutterman (Dalem, Netherlands) led the way with 16 points and four rebounds for the Cougars. Cooper finished with 10 points, while senior
AJ Kittles (Glassboro, N.J.) totaled five points and six boards.
The Cougars return to conference play as they host Goldey-Beacom College in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference match-up on Saturday, January 4 at 3 pm.
Post-game quotes from the head coaches
Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell
On scheduling the game: "You play games for a lot of reasons and there's challenges in every game, not worried about the postseason, just worried about winning games coming back from Christmas. We play in the best league in the country. We play the best schedule in that league. Every year we play the hardest schedule the Big Ten. Good game for us coming back from break, always worried coming back from break all the different things that happen. Get the Christmas out of our system. I really want to thank Caldwell for that date, it's hard to get teams in that date, a lot of teams are into league play already. Coach Corino is one of the best kept secrets really in New Jersey. He's won 580 games. They beat Norfolk State this year. Their court is named after him. He's one of the good guys and good basketball people too, so tip of the hat for those guys to come here. And much respect for him, he's a really good guy and some really good basketball guy too. You can tell they'll win a lot of games in their league. I mean, everyone the country is playing games like this. You come back from break and you get your guys back ready. They had a three and a half, four-day layoff, so it's good to get them up and down the court and try some different matchups. We will be challenged every game for the next 18 as hard as the program can be challenged."
Caldwell Head Coach Mark A. Corino
On the game: "Obviously I think they're much improved and they're playing very well at this point in time. Defensively they were overwhelming for us. We had trouble obviously, size wise and they beat us on the boards with offensive rebounds, especially early and scored early with points off of our turnovers. They're aggressive defensively. And tonight they shot the ball I think better than they have maybe in a while. They made 10 threes. If they had a weakness, I believe that was their weakness. But tonight they made some threes, Jacob Young made a few threes, I think he made more tonight than he did all year coming in. They're a nice club. Our guys were off for a week now. This is our first day back actually. But overall, I'm impressed with Rutgers in the growth of their team. And I know they're going to win some games in that conference."
On Rutgers guard play: "Paul Mulcahy is obviously a talented player in the sense that he knows the game. He is an outstanding passer. He'll be good for them as they continue to grow as a program. Obviously Geo Baker is a solid all-around player. Jacob young today came in and played well. He shot the ball better than he has all year. If they get production like that off the bench from him, I think that'll be a big plus for that."
