(Photo USA Today)

Today our Cardinals finished a four-game road trip that started on Dec. 21. It looked like they were suffering from a little road rust as they struggled at times with Rutgers. In a game that featured 62 personal fouls and lasted more than 2 1/2 hours the Cardinals did survive with the 83-76 victory. They will now return home from the road 3-1 and get ready for #18 Memphis on Thursday night.

The Cards looked out of sorts to start the game tonight getting behind by margins of 7-0 and 12-4 before the press started to take effect. They took control with a 31-11 “Boom” spurt that happened at the end of the first half and the start of the second. During this 10 minute stretch they held Rutgers to 3 scores. It’s a good thing the run came when it did because they would need it at the end after they started to get sloppy, force up bad shots and turn the ball over (season high 17 TO’s). Not exactly the way to finish strong.

Four Cardinals scored in double digits. Russ Smith scored 22 points, Luke Hancock added 15 points, Terry Rozier had a career-high 14 and Wayne Blackshear 13. Terry is really developing nicely and it was good to see aggressive Wayne back today. The most impressive thing about the win was the free-throw shooting. The guys shot a whopping 89% from the charity stripe converting 41 of 46 foul shots. The 41 made free throws were a season high, and a school record for a conference game. Would like to see this trend continue. It was also a good effort on the defensive side of the ball forcing Rutgers to a season high 19 turnovers.

This game was one of those battle it out to the end Big East type of road wins, and I think it was good for our guys to get tested like they did. It is only going to get tougher from here on out. The AAC is starting to look like it could end up being a very competitive league. I bet our guys will be happy to be back in the Yum Center in front of the Cardinal faithful on Thursday night. Should be a great game taking on the old foe Memphis.