7 takeaways from Rutgers' near-upset vs. No. 3 Purdue, including Corey Sanders' bounce-back

Sanders averaged nine points in the prior four games, well off his season average of 14.2, and was held scoreless in Rutgers’ loss at Penn State last Saturday. A week later, the Boilermakers couldn’t guard him. Sanders had 10 points in the first half to keep Rutgers in the game, then took over with 21 in the second half to keep the Scarlet Knights in the contest.

Sanders’ career-high remains 39 points in a three-overtime loss to Illinois as a freshman. It was his second 30-point game of his career and his 16th with at least 20 points.

“He’s a guy that is very streaky. He can really get it going and carry his team,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “It is just one of those things that you tip your hat to him. He is a good player.”

Here are seven other thoughts from Rutgers’ near-miss:

The free throw disparity between the two teams got a lot of play post-game, although it didn’t seem all that egregious during the game. Purdue was 25-for-29 from the line; Rutgers was eight-for-10.

“You can’t defend the foul line, it’s a tough place to defend,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “They got to the line a lot, and I wish we got there a little bit more ourselves.”

Sanders admitted the situation was “frustrating,” but nothing Rutgers could dwell on much.

“I didn’t know it was that bad until I looked at it, but it’s part of the game. It’s been like that all year,” he said. “We’ve got to fight through when adversity hits, and we’ve got to find another way to win.”

Purdue was 11-for-13 at the line in the final two minutes of the game, and its ability to get to the line allowed it to hold off Rutgers throughout the game. The Scarlet Knights got close on several occasions, including two junctures in the second half where they made it a one-point game, but they were never able to get over the hump after trailing by 15 at one point in the first half and 11 at the half.

“They had to fight. They had to spend a lot of energy when your down 11 (at halftime) and they did, but they never took the lead or control of the game,” Painter said. With that being said now, at the end our free throw shooting was the difference.”

Was there anything Rutgers could have done to get to the line more? “There’s nothing,” Pikiell said. “Try to do a great job of defending without fouling that’s what you try to do. And we obviously didn’t do that.”

Rutgers is down to eight scholarship players with Eugene Omoruyi (knee) and Mike Williams (ankle) sidelined, so Pikiell has to squeeze everything he can out of his reserves. One of the main beneficiaries has been forward Matt Bullock. The Roselle Catholic product has been dogged by questions about his conditioning, and still will be, but he’s no longer nailed to the bench like he once was.

Bullock played a career-high 17 minutes on Saturday, finishing with six points and six rebounds. It didn’t sound like Pikiell is ready to declare Rutgers has found something here, though.

“Matt’s been called upon to do some stuff now. Everyone has to, so he showed some signs of being good, and then he showed signs of not being ready,” he said. “We need everybody on board, and hopefully he’ll continue to grow with some game minutes. We need everybody until those guys get back.”