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Rutgers overcomes 16-point deficit in second half to beat Northwestern, stay perfect at home

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

The perfect home record is still intact for Rutgers, but it didn’t come without a serious scare from Northwestern on Sunday evening.

Rutgers found itself down double digits in both the first and second half of Sunday’s game against Northwestern, needing a late run to get the victory. The Scarlet Knights went on an 18-4 run 7:47 to tie the game at 66-66 at the end of regulation, forcing overtime. They then outscored the Wildcats 11-7 in the final five minutes to get the victory.

Geo Baker had a huge night for Rutgers, scoring 25 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing five assists off the bench. Akwasi Yeboah was the team’s second-leading scorer with 13 points and Ron Harper Jr. finished with 10. Myles Johnson grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

Northwestern got off to a hot start, jumping out to a quick 15-5 lead by the first media timeout. The Wildcats built the lead to 17 points with less than four minutes to play in the first half, going ahead 35-18. Rutgers was a able to make a late surge to close the gap to 38-27 by halftime.

It was more of the same early in the second half, as the Wildcats maintained a double-digit advantage through nearly 14 minutes. At one point, Northwestern owned a 16-point lead at 52-36, appearing to put the game out of reach.

That furious late-game run, which included a tying three-point shot from Baker, kept Rutgers alive, forcing overtime. Rutgers never trailed in the five minutes of the extra period.

With the victory, the Scarlet Knights are now 16-0 at the RAC and are 8-5 in B1G play. Rutgers is 17-7 overall.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB