PISCATAWAY – With six minutes remaining, the Rutgers basketball team was locked in a one-point game with Saint Peter’s. The crowd of 8,000 at Jersey Mike’s Arena was on pins and needles. And Jordan Derkack did not like the doubt he saw in his teammates’ eyes during a timeout huddle.
“I’ve played in these games on the other side,” said the junior wing, a Colonia High School grad who transferred home from Merrimack in the offseason. “I could see the vibe getting tense, and I said, ‘Everybody calm down, take a deep breath, stay focused.’”
PJ Hayes heard it just a bit differently.
“He basically told us there’s no need to freak out,” the postgrad wing said. “We’ve got the talent, we’ve worked hard enough, just lock in and do your job.”
Whatever his wording, Derkack’s message hit home. Rutgers controlled the homestretch to prevail 75-65, avoiding a resume-denting upset and perhaps as important, forging a character-building result that may come in handy down the road.
“We’re not going to blow everyone out by 40 – that’s unrealistic,” Hayes said. “For us to be able to power through that, for a team that’s young and a little inexperienced, we need that.”
With star freshman forward Ace Bailey still sidelined by an injury, freshman guard Dylan Harper did much of the heavy lifting, posting 24 points and six rebounds. But it was Derkack who supplied the glue as things could have fallen apart. His final stat line of nine points, six rebounds and two assists did not do justice to his role over 25 minutes.
Early in the second half, which opened with Saint Peter’s ahead 42-37, it was Derkack who woke everyone up. After a Peacocks turnover he launched a spectacular skip pass to breaking teammate Jeremiah Williams for a transition layup.
“I love to push it up the court,” he said. “As soon as I turned my head, I saw Jeremiah running up the court and I found him. Funny enough, I wound up falling on the ground, but I heard the crowd erupt and I figured he made the layup. Plays like that, I’m happy I could make because it helps the team out and it fires up the crowd.”
Then he posted up, backed down a defender and swung an opposite-corner pass to open forward Zach Martini, who drilled a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer. Then he pushed another rebound
Then he grabbed a defensive rebound, pushed up court, and flipped the ball backward in the paint for Martini, who dished to freshman forward Lathan Sommerville for a layup. That’s what they call a hockey assist and you won’t find it in the box score.
“Those are IQ plays from a guy who’s been around,” Harper said. “I mean, it’s like we have another point guard when he’s on the court.”
The moral of the story is that yes, Rutgers (2-0) has star power in Harper and Bailey, but in a long season other players sometimes have to seize the moment. On this night, Derkack grabbed it with both hands.
“He can do a lot of things for our team,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “We can move him around. He was guarding fives at the end of the game and he’s tough enough to do that. He’s a really good passer, he can go downhill and he knows how to play defensively, too.”
And knows how to get through to his teammates. After his “don’t freak out” speech, Rutgers outscored Saint Peter’s 13-4 to close out the victory.
“He’s got a toughness about him and a calmness too, about him in those huddles,” Pikiell said. “That’s what experience does for you and he brings a lot to us here.”
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1. Hats off to Saint Peter’s
Saint Peter’s (0-3), which returns four key players from an NCAA Tournament team, previously lost by four points at Seton Hall and by seven at UMass-Lowell. Senior guard Marcus Randolph, who hails from Willingboro, led the way with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
“He played like a senior,” coach Bashir Mason said.
The Peacocks sport a valuable intangible – they’ve been through the crucible together, and they’ve won together. In a sport where musical chairs reigns, that’s gold. That they play hard for Mason is a given. But this team can shoot the deep ball better than previous additions (10-of-27 from 3-point range vs. Rutgers) and that will make them a contender to repeat as MAAC Tournament champions.
““I do believe wholeheartedly we have a championship-level roster,” Mason said. “We’ve been in every game and as we grow up throughout the season we’ll start winning them.”
It didn’t help the Peacocks’ cause that point guard Bryce Eaton could not finish the game due to an unspecified injury. That said, they handled this hostile environment superbly.
“These are the games we get excited for,” Mason said. “I have no interest in ever playing Kentucky, Arizona, Gonzaga. I want to play Rutgers, I want to play Seton Hall, I want to play St. John’s. I want to play the schools in the metropolitan area because there’s an energy about it I enjoy.”
For the record: Saint Peter’s last win against Rutgers came in November 2014, a 68-50 demolition during the Eddie Jordan era.
2. Tale of two defenses
Pikiell said it throughout the preseason, and everyone saw it in the exhibition against St. John’s: Rutgers has a long way to go defensively. You have seven new guys in the rotation who are trying to learn Pikiell’s defensive principles, and the breakdowns were numerous against Saint Peter’s in the first half.
Rutgers defenders got hung up on screens, were late on rotations and closed poorly as the Peacocks spread the floor and fired away – or dumped down when the Scarlet Knights overhelped.
At halftime, Pikiell said, “I hugged them all and told them how much I appreciate their lousy defense.”
He also made some adjustments to Rutgers’ ball-screen coverage. Saint Peters shot just 26 percent in the second half.
“They made us finish over the top,” Mason said, “and we struggled a little bit down the stretch with that.”
There’s a ton of season left and Rutgers will get better on that end – it’s Pikiell’s calling card – but this was a reminder that the coach doesn’t have three years to instill team defensive chops in these guys. It’s a crash course right now the Scarlet Knights need more study hall.
3. More Dylan Harper groundbreaking
Harper became the first Rutgers freshman since 1972 to score at least 20 points in his first two games. In 1972-73, the first season that freshmen were eligible for competition, future All-America forward Phil Sellers scored 30 points in his debut and 28 points in his second game.
Harper also became the program’s first freshman to record back-to-back 20-point games since Corey Sanders in 2016.
“He’s a pro,” Mason said. “You can’t speed him up. He started out that second half, he was going to put the team on his back. He settled everybody else down and kind of controlled the game the rest of the way.”
Notably, Harper drew seven fouls and made seven of his eight free throws.
“Coach Pikiell trusted me to go out there and just be the team leader,” he said. “The biggest deal for me is making the right play.”
4. Good sign, and a bad one
Freshman center Lathan Sommerville continued to outplay starting center Manny Ogbole, tallying 14 points, four rebounds and three blocks in 24 minutes off the bench.
“I never change on a win, the starting lineup, but Lathan is going to play a ton of minutes,” Pikiell said. “We got a lot of guys at that five spot, but he keeps getting better and better. Proud of him.”
The red flag continues to fly for Rutgers in the rebounding department. For the third time in three games, the Scarlet Knights gave up double-figure offensive boards and got beat by the opponent in that category (11-9 in this one).
Look for more tinkering with combinations from Pikiell in an effort to get this addressed. It was notable that he finished the game with a small lineup as both Ogbole and Sommerville sat.
5. Jersey tour continues
Rutgers’ local-opponent tour continues Friday when Monmouth visits Friday (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network). The last meeting between these programs took place in 2015, when the Hawks won 73-67 in Piscataway during the Eddie Jordan era. The Scarlet Knights lead the all-time series 9-1.
Monmouth is 0-2 with blowout losses to Michigan State and Temple, but the Hawks have been without standout forward Jaret Valencia, who recently began practicing after undergoing hernia surgery.
Will Bailey, who looked fine during warmups, make his Rutgers debut?
“He’s close,” Pikiell said.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
