Rock Bottom? Rutgers men suffer historic defeat, fall to Purdue 107-57

(Edwin Gano – The Daily Targum)

Heading into its game against Purdue, the Rutgers men’s basketball team was considered a heavy underdog.

With mounting injuries to their frontcourt while going against one of the best rebounding and interior scoring teams in the Big Ten, the matchup did not favor the Scarlet Knights.

But no one could have predicted the final score last night.

In the end, the Knights suffered their worst home loss in program history, falling 107-57 to Purdue last night.

One would have to go back to 1956, when Rutgers lost by 44 points to Lafayette, to find the most recent loss of this magnitude. To say the Knights had no answers for the Boilermakers talented frontcourt is an understatement.

Purdue destroyed Rutgers on the boards, as it was outrebounded 63-23. This drastic difference allowed the Boilermakers to have a number of second-chance opportunities throughout the game.

The only Scarlet Knight who had a solid outing last night was freshman guard Corey Sanders, who shot 50 percent from the field and scored 23 points in the contest.

His performance has been the only bright spot in what has been a disastrous stretch of conference play for the Knights.

The difference in bench points highlights the state of these two teams.

With only seven scholarship players logging game time for the Knights yesterday, the talent deficiency was evident from the opening tip. Purdue played its backups for most of the second half, and racked up a 57 bench points.

Rutgers totaled six bench points.

Following the game, Rutgers head coach Eddie Jordan said that frontcourt players Shaquille Doorson, Deshawn Freeman, and Ibrahima Diallo, are done for the season.

The trio was expected to play major minutes and make up a competitive frontcourt rotation for the Knights.

This expectation, like many other set for this season, have been changed for Rutgers.

All of the Knights’ deficiencies were fully exploited by the Boilermakers, who came out firing and did not let up all game.

Yet even with a injury-riddled team, more effort and fight should be expected from a Rutgers squad that came into the season with the primary goal of becoming even more competitive in the Big Ten.

After last night’s result, that goal is in serious doubt.