Rutgers Knocks off Seton Hall on Last-Second Buzzer Beater

JR Inman hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on one leg with 1.2 seconds left to give Rutgers a 64-61 victory over in-state rival Seton Hall on Senior Day at the Prudential Center.

The win snapped a nine-game losing streak for Rutgers and was just the third Big East Conference victory this season for the Scarlet Knights, who ended their season at 11-20, 3-15 Big East.

"It was a miracle shot by Inman," said Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez, whose team dropped three straight and eight of 10 to close the regular season despite the bright blue blazor he wore. "He got lucky, he made the shot."

What it means for Seton Hall (17-14, 7-11) is that no matter what happens tonight in the game between UConn and Cincinnati, Seton Hall earns the No. 11 seed in the Big East championship and will play No. 6 Marquette at 9 o'clock Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. It remains unclear whether the Pirates have done enough already to earn an NIT bid.

"This was the most crushing, disappointing loss of my life, of my life, ever," Gonzalez said. "It's not just because it's Rutgers, it's a rivalry, we're the better team. I just wanted to win the game so bad for Brian (Laing) and Jamar (Nutter) because I just didn't want them to go out on Senior Day with a loss. But you know, life is funny sometimes."

In the final handshake line, Rutgers coach Fred Hill appeared to extend his hand to Gonzalez, only to quickly pull his hand away after a brief shake and then slap Gonzalez hard in the back.

"A handhsake, that was it," said Hill, whose team outscored the Pirates 41-27 after halftime. "I shook his hand, said 'Good game' and kept on going."

Asked if he was clapping his hands in Gonzalez's direction after the Inman shot and prior to the handshake, Hill said he was "clapping for JR Inman because he executed what we had drew up out of the timeout and knocked the shot down and we didn't have to coach in overtime.

"I was more happy for Byron Joynes. He's a senior, he's a warrior, he's done so many things for our program. I was extremely happy for Byron, I was very happy for JR."

Asked for his take on the handshake, Gonzalez said: "We didn't a say a word to each other. No disrespect. I respect Freddie. He works hard. He came up the way I came up. He paid his dues as an assistant, he got his head job. He's a guy born and raised in Jersey. He works hard, there's nothing personal between me and him. It's business. I compete, I go to war when I want to win a game. Once it's over, it's over."

Gonzalez ran on the court after Inman's shot went down and before the officials went to the monitor to verify that the shot went down.

"I ran on the court and I was yelling because he said it was good before going to the monitor, that same person (Wally Rutecki), and I have a problem with that. I have an issue with that.

"Now again, I don't make excuses when we get beat. We didn't lose because of the officials. RUtgers won the game. JR Inman is a class kid. From what I understand, that kid has been maligned all year. He's had his ups and downs. I don't want to talk about someone else's players, I gotta worry about my own players.

"But that kid (Inman) is talented and he made a helluva shot."

Still, Gonzalez made no secret that he was upset with the officials, who gave him a technical foul with 7:25 remaining in the second half, but didn't give one to Hill when he ran out of the box at one point.

"There was a situation where (Hill) ran out of the box, out of control and deserved a technical foul, plain and simple," Gonzalez said. "I think because I yelled out to the ref, 'Hey, you gave one to me, why can't you give to the other coach?' that may have sent a message down to the other end, to cause some more frustration to an already wonderful friendship, an already heated rivalry.

"There's nothing personal between me and Freddie."

Asked if the loss will hurt his team's NIT chances, Gonzalez said: "I thought we had a good case if we won the game. By losing the game, does it cost us the NIT? ...I don't know where we fall now.

"Seventeen and 14 is good, it's a winning season. I just really wanted to get to 18 wins, I'm disappointed, and I thought the one we had to get  was the one today."

Jaron Griffin finished with 12 for Rutgers  and Corey Chandler 11, all during a critical 11-0 second-half RU run. Inman had seven.

Jeremy Hazell led all scorers with a game-high 19 points and Laing had 16. John Garcia had 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Seton Hall blew leads of 16-4, 19-5 and 34-23 at the break. After Seton Hall took a 37-32 lead on a pair Laing foul shots, RU went on an 11-0 run, getting all 11 points from Chandler, to go up 43-37.

Seton Hall's last lead came at 58-57 on 1-of-2 foul shots by Eugene Harvey, but Jaron Griffin hit a 3-pointer for RU to put the visitors up 60-58. Laing and Anthony Farmer then each hit 1-of-2 free throws to put RU up 61-59.

Nutter hit a short contested putback jumper in the paint to tie the game at 61 with a few seconds left.

Rutgers inbounded the ball and moved it upcourt to Inman, who drained a desperation, off-balance 3-pointer as time expired.

"We haven't been real lucky in the last couple weeks," Gonzalez said. "We were trying, we just couldn't catch a break the last three or four games."

Comments

[RUrising]

Love the blue blob blazer Gonzo. Poor Gonzo, he always seems to have the better team in the close games he loses. And in the close games his team wins, he thinks it should count twice. Poor Gonzo, how many "woe is me" sad songs will we have to hear next season when he may not win a game in the Big East?

So long Laing and Nutter--and yes good luck--but I can't wait to play the HALL without those two next year.

[RUrising]

Dear Coach Gonzo,

I am sorry you feel so unlucky. But maybe the following brief review of the last 2-3 minutes of the game will help you sleep better knowing that you were plenty lucky:

1) TV replays clearly showed that Hazell was never touched on his missed 3-ball yet the 3 FT phony foul was called luckily,

2) Harvey was wildly airborne and out-of-control when crashing into Joynes-who again had clearly set position, yet another lucky bad call put Harvey at the line for 2 FTs,

3) Chandler didn't even come close to palming the ball on that late drive but lucky for you he was whistled anyway-handing your team t/o number 22? 23?,

4) Hazell tipped-up that inbound pass and the ball hit the back of the backboard--dead ball, RU inbounding was the right call, but luckily your team benefited from another blown call,

5) a) Nutter elbowed and pushed Coburn out-of-bounds, but, lucky for you, another blown call and another turnover handed to your team and b) Nutter all but horse-collared the RU guard on the last inbound break away that led to Inman's 3-ball homerun.

But, your lucky baby blue blazer may have confused Harvey on his pass to you out-of-bounds. Nice catch though coach.

But, like the lucky Nutter Hail Mary fade away 3-pointer vs. SJU last week, Inman's bomb was good.

[setondeemo]

alright i had to create an account because i cannot handle rurising anymore. you make such an effort to try and act like you know what your talking about. its BIG EAST basketball not the pansy pac ten, these are going to be tough grind it out games with a lot of no calls. And you think we were getting the calls, you gotta be kidding me. I have season tickets and went to the rutgers game and in none of the games does it seem like it's our home court. Especially with Higgins who is the worst referee in NCAA's. And don't lie man Inmans shot was a huck he wasn't expecting to go in. He floated it 50 feet in the air and fell down for no reason expecting overtime.

[RUrising]

Welcome aboard setondemo.

Where did I lie about Inman's shot? I clearly compared it to the Hail Mary turnaround fade away 3-ball huck by Nutter in the SJU game.

[setondeemo]

You called Nutters shot lucky when he was set and shooting almost 40 percent from three this year which is pretty much his only dimension as a player. Inmans was prayer floater not really defended but was lucky as hell it went in.

[RUrising]

You need to watch the replay of that Nutter 3-shot vs. SJU in last minute of play. First of all, Nutter came around and off a moving pick by Garcia. Then he took the pass beyond the arc with his back to the basket, turned around and shot the ball fading away. Nice try, but you are either confused with some other game or are lying to yourself that Nutter was "set" for that desperation shot with the 40-sec. clock almost out at SJU.

[RUrising]

And I still have no idea what you think I'm lying about with Inman's shot--can't you at least validate your comment that I somehow lied about Inman's homerun 3-ball that sent Gonzo into a infantile tizzy?