Ron Harper Jr. scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as Rutgers broke a three-game losing streak with a 74-64 win over Clemson on Tuesday night in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge game at Piscataway, N.J.
Paul Mulcahy had seven assists for the Scarlet Knights, including one on a three-point play by Harper that gave Rutgers a 63-56 lead with 4:07 left. Clemson’s PJ Hall, who scored 10 points, fouled out on the play.
Caleb McConnell scored 16 points and Aundre Hyatt and Cliff Omoruyi each had 11 points for Rutgers (4-3), which was without star guard Geo Baker (hamstring) for a second straight game. Harper grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
David Collins scored 18 points and pulled down 10 boards for the Tigers (5-3), and Hunter Tyson had 10 points.
Omoruyi’s dunk off an alley-oop pass from Harper with 2:39 left gave Rutgers a 67-59 lead, sealing the victory.
Clemson trailed by 11 early in the second half, but Collins’ straightaway 3-pointer with 15:20 left cut the deficit to 41-36. However, Rutgers opened its lead back to 45-36 on two free throws by Hyatt.
The Tigers responded with back-to-back treys by Al-Amir Dawes to trim Rutgers’ lead to three, and then Chase Hunter’s fastbreak layup cut their deficit to 45-44 with 12:24 to go.
Harper then hit a 3-pointer and the Scarlet Knights eventually built their lead back to 53-46 when Harper drained a straightway trey with 9:22 left after Mulcahy shoveled a pass to him.
Clemson struggled from 3-point range in the first half, going 1-for-9 against a Rutgers team that had allowed Massachusetts to shoot 16-for-32 from long distance while falling 85-83 to the Minutemen on Saturday. Clemson finished 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from behind the arc.
The Tigers took a 17-15 lead on a driving layup by Naz Bohannon on a feed from Hunter with 10:08 left in the first half. Rutgers responded with the next five points to go ahead 20-17. Clemson scored the next five points, but the Scarlet Knights closed the half with a 13-3 run for a 33-25 lead at halftime.
–Field Level Media
