The Guru Report: Rutgers Still Winless in Big Ten After Narrow Loss at Ohio State

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Though the Big Ten schedule has been akin to the Bermuda Triangle when it comes to Rutgers’ current season, there was a sighting of the Scarlet Knights Monday evening in Columbus, Ohio, where the contingent took on the No. 21 Buckeyes in Ohio State’s Value CityArena.

During league play in this winless run to date, the team, which has lost five games by five points or less, has come up with a variety of ways to land on the wrong end of the final score. 

There have been games where rough seas have been confronted early and suddenly interim coach Tim Eatman found a course leading a tenacious rally only to come up short at the finish.

And then there were nights from dockside where from the moment the anchor was lifted at tipoff it was full speed ahead only to run aground in the fourth quarter. 

Monday night it appeared a competitive way was found to float the entire distance before a nationwide B1G TV audience with sails flapping in the wind off a 24-10 second quarter only to have it all collapse at the finish after Sayawni Lassiter’s three-ball with 44 seconds left in regulation brought Rutgers within a point at 57-56.

Taylor Mikesell’s two free throws put Ohio State up three.with 24 seconds left followed by a failed shot from deep attempting to tie.

The Knights and Buckeyes then exchanged free throws for a final score of 61-57.

Rutgers (7-17, 0-12 Big Ten), the only Guru local on the night’s card, had an eight point lead at the half and then got swamped by a 13-0 run from the Buckeyes (17-4, 9-3) at the start of the third.

Mikesell had a game-high 26 points, fueled by six triplets, for the home team, which gained a sweep of Rutgers, while Braxtin Miller collected 12 points and Jacy Sheldon grabbed eight rebounds.

    

“We started playing defense,” said Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff. “Rutgers was scoring too easily in the first half, which means we have to take the ball under the net and we can’t get out in transition.

“We really turned up the defense, we got steals and defensive rebounds that allowed us to get in transition and get some things going.”

Wasted with the lost was a career-high 15 points from Lassiter while Ty Singleton had 10 rebounds.

‘The resiliency in this game showed we’re getting better,” Eatman said. “We continued to fight.”

Rutgers next hosts Penn State Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

Of national note, only three games were on the season long tracker. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 5 NC State at home beat No. 11 Georgia Tech, 59-48, in the Southeastern Conference on the road No. 15 LSU beat Ole Miss, 68-64, and in the Big Sky Conference, Montana State on the road beat Idaho 96-84.

And that’s the report.