Lafayette Leopards vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights Box Score on Nov 22, 2021

Kyle Jenkins made a 3-pointer, only his second basket of the game, with two seconds left to lift Lafayette to a 53-51 upset of host Rutgers in a non-conference game Monday night in Piscataway, N.J.

Paul Mulcahy of the Scarlet Knights missed a desperation heave as time expired.

Rutgers star Ron Harper Jr. made a steal and then sank a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left, after a pass from Mulcahy, to put the Scarlet Knights (3-2) ahead 51-50. But Lafayette (1-4), which had lost its previous three road games by an average of 31.7 points, ran most of the shot clock down before Jenkins delivered his game-winner.

Leo O'Boyle scored 18 points and Neal Quinn had 12 points and five assists for the underdog Leopards.

Cliff Omoruyi scored 14 points, Harper 13 and Mulcahy 10 for Rutgers, which shot 28.6 percent from the field and 15.4 percent from 3-point range.

Rutgers, which led 29-28 at halftime, struggled offensively to begin the second half, missing nine of its first 11 shots from the floor. That enabled the Leopards to go ahead 42-35 on a 3-pointer by Jon Brantley with 12:53 left, set up by a Chris Rubayo steal.

However, Lafayette failed to score for the next 4:37, allowing the stagnant Rutgers offense to crawl back into the game somewhat. Still, Quinn's dunk with 8:16 to go put Lafayette up 44-39.

Rutgers fought back by scoring the next six points, and Omoruyi's dunk put the Scarlet Knights ahead 45-44 with 6:08 to go. But Rutgers' anemic offense went into another funk as the Scarlet Knights did not score for the next 3:35.

Quinn's putback returned the lead to Lafayette, 46-45, with 5:41 left, and O'Boyle later scored on a pass from Quinn for a 48-45 lead.

Rutgers led at halftime for the first time this season. Rutgers took a 27-21 lead on a 3-pointer by Geo Baker with 3:50 left in the first half, but managed only one more basket before intermission as the Leopards cut their deficit to one point on a 3-pointer by O'Boyle with two seconds to go in the half.

--Field Level Media