After winning against No. 7 Cincinnati, the SMU Mustangs took to the road to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The team would have to be careful, though, as a loss similar to the one at USF was certainly a possibility.
Markus Kennedy, as with the Cincinnati game, committed two early fouls. This allowed Cannen Cunningham to get some big first-half minutes again.
Cunningham made his presence felt on an alley-oop slam from Nick Russell, putting SMU up 19-15.
Cunningham impressively put up 10 points and four rebounds in the first half. However, he committed five of the team’s six first-half turnovers.
Nic Moore kept the SMU offense flowing, dishing out five assists in the first-half with no turnovers. He was a large reason SMU ended the first half on a mini-run, and behind 50 percent shooting, SMU went into the half up 36-29.
Fouls were an issue for the Mustangs in the first half, as they committed 12 fouls. Those fouls allowed the Scarlet Knights to shoots 14 free throws and keep it close.
Sure enough, Rutgers didn’t lie down and let SMU walk all over them. They came out in the second half, drew fouls, and cut the lead to one at 41-40.
At that point, Kennedy decided that it was time to make some noise. Kennedy got himself inside and forced two straight and-ones. He made the free throw on one of them.
Following the Kennedy’s five straight points, Moore nailed three treys with only a Kadeem Jack dunk for Rutgers separating them. That put the score at 55-42.
However, behind 10 points from Scarlet Knight’s star Myles Mack, Rutgers was able to scrape the lead to 64-57.
Up by only eight, Nic Moore swished a three, and Ben Moore got a two-point shot to push the lead to 71-58.
A Russell three with 1:14 left put the game away, and SMU emerged victorious from this scrap-fest, 77-65.
Rutgers received a combined 32 points, 12 boards, and five assists from Mack and Jack. However, 10-28 shooting from the pair was the ultimate demise for the Scarlet Knights.
Moore was the star of the game as he put up an imposing 21 points and six assists with zero turnovers.
SMU faces a quick turnaround, traveling to Temple on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tipoff.
