Rutgers

Today at 11:26 PM

A disappointing season for Rutgers has officially come to an end.

Despite being spearheaded by lottery-bound talents Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, the No. 11 Scarlet Knights fell to No. 14 USC 97-89 in double overtime on Wednesday in the first round of the Big 10 Conference championship tournament.

Harper, considered by many draft experts as the top option on the board after consensus No. 1 choice Cooper Flagg, finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks.

Bailey added 17 points, three rebounds and three steals.

Rutgers trailed by as many as 15 points throughout the game before making a furious comeback down the stretch. And while they did enough to force not one, but two overtimes, they couldn’t complete the comeback rally.

The Scarlet Knights went 15-16 on the season and finished 11th in the Big 10. That was even with both Harper and Bailey finding their fair share of individual success.

Harper, son of long-time NBA veteran Ron Harper Sr., averaged 19.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists throughout 28 regular season games. Meanwhile, Bailey averaged 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.3 blocks per game through 29 appearances.

Rutgers started the year 4-0 but weren’t able to repeat that type of success as the season continued. And after playing with fire on multiple occasions throughout the year, the Scarlet Knights finally got burned.

They entered Wednesday’s contest with a 3-0 record in overtime games this year before losing to USC in just the second double-OT game in Big 10 tournament history.

While Rutgers gets ready to regroup, Harper and Bailey will begin prepping for the NBA Draft. Meanwhile, USC gets set to take on No. 6 Purdue on Thursday in the second round of the Big 10 tournament.