The Rutgers Scarlet Knights Deck The Hall for the Holidays and Earn Bragging Rights

The Garden State rivalry between Rutgers and Seton Hall that had been slumbering over the last four years since the breakup of the Big East came back to life with a fury Saturday. Rutgers showed it is no longer a punching bag for Big East contender and 15th-ranked Seton Hall.

The Scarlet Knights, who had been buried at the bottom of the Big Ten, had a defining moment in Piscataway, N.J. decking the Hall, 71-65, in an intense, dramatic game played before a deafeningly loud, sellout crowd of 8,316 at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

“I think the first game I coached here there were 1,800 fans,” Rutgers’ coach Steve Pikiell said. ‘So I would say this is the most fans to watch a Rutgers game here at the RAC since 2002, that’s a couple of years ago. So to have a crowd like that after a year being here, it’s a credit to the players. They made this a game and these are the guys who believed in us a year ago and stayed the course.

“We have this many people here against a ranked team. Our fans who come out, unbelievably loyal. This is a step in the process.’’

The RAC hadn’t been sold out for this game since 2011. Attendance for the 2015 and 2013 games was 5,631 and 5,210. But fans were hanging from the rafters in this aging arena for a resurgent rivalry, watching guard Corey Sanders score 21 points and freshman guard Gio Baker adding 18 as the Knights stormed back from a nine point second half deficit with a 13-0 run to win this one, holding the Pirates scoreless for the final six minutes

This was the Knights’ first win over a ranked team since Jan. 15 when they defeated Wisconsin and their first win over the Hall after four straight losses by an average of 18 points. But the Scarlet Knights showed life last year at the Rock, leading by nine at the half before falling 72-61.

There was a time early on in this game when the Pirates looked like they were going to take over the game, building a 10 point first half lead in large part because of 6 – 8 senior Ismael Sanogo. But the Knights refused to go away, constantly frustrating the Hall’s 6 -10, 240 pound All American candidate Angel Delgado down low with four different defenders, even though he gobbled up 20 rebounds.

In the end, the Rutgers students got to celebrate by storming the court after Baker nailed a shot to tie the game at 63 with 2:33 to play and Sanders drained two free throws to put the knights ahead, 65-63, for good.

“For the past three years, this has been a blue state,” Rutgers guard Mike Williams said. “Now we have bragging right for a year.”

The game was filled with chippy play, constant trash talking, a double technical foul called against Pirates’ guard Desi Rodriguez and Rutgers forward Eugene Omoruyi and an ugly play that took place just before the final buzzer when Seton Hall guard Myles Powell hammered Omoruyi on a breakaway.

The trash talk continued well after the final buzzer.

it’s a rivalry game,” Sanogo said. ‘We’re not out there to be friends, we’re not out there to be buddy-buddy. I don’t want to be friends with those guys at end of the day. I don’t like anybody on their team. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

Seton Hall is an NCAA team.

Rutgers wants to build itself into one.

And the Knights didn’t appear ready to back down from a fight any more to get there.

‘There was trash talk like, ‘If I hit this shot, it’s going to be over for you,” Williams said. “It was like, ‘Let’s see what happens if it comes to that.”

New Jersey needs a bitterly competitive game like this to juice up interest between the two marquee college basketball programs in North Jersey. We could see the Hall dropping the curtains in the upper deck at the Rock when the two teams play in Newark next year.

‘It’s great. It’s great that the interest is back, I think in both programs,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. ‘I love the fact that it helped both programs, to be honest with you. It just does. It’s a great atmosphere. I thought last year at home, our atmosphere was really good, too. So the more interest that it gets it just shows more and more people just how good both these programs can be.”