Bloodied Rutgers beats 'Cuse

The Associated Press PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon had been saying over and over he needed his team to give him a full 40 minutes. The Scarlet Knights gave it to him last night in a 74-71 victory over No. 20 Syracuse. ''That was a good win and a good way to win especially because we had been knocking on the door and playing good basketball but not quite enough to beat the ranked teams in our league,'' Bannon said of his team, which had lost four of its last five, including two close losses to No. 8 St. John's. Freshman Dahntay Jones scored a season-high 23 points for Rutgers (11-6, 4-4 Big East), which made 15 of 18 free throws over the final 5:16. The Scarlet Knights had just one field goal over the last 4 1/2 minutes, a layup by Jeff Greer that gave them a 74-68 lead with 11 seconds to play. Allen Griffin then made his second three-pointer of the final 30 seconds to bring Syracuse (12-5, 4-4) within 74-71 with 1.9 seconds left. Rutgers was unable to inbound the ball on its first try and was forced to call a timeout. The second try at inbounding by Earl Johnson was tipped and it went to Ryan Blackwell of Syracuse, but his three-point try at the buzzer hit the rim. ''Damone [Brown] deflected the ball,'' said Blackwell, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. ''It came toward me at midcourt. I just grabbed it and tried to put it up. I didn't know how much time I had or if I could square up for a set shot. It wasn't a clean three-pointer.'' Rutgers' emotional leader for the game was senior forward Rob Hodgson, who had 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and three jerseys. He was cut over the right eye by an elbow as he tried to take a charge with about eight minutes to play. The cut continued to bleed and he had to wear three different jerseys -- Nos. 45, 24 and 4 -- but missed only a minute or two down the stretch. ''What can you say about Rob Hodgson?'' Bannon asked. ''Three jerseys, bleeding everywhere. They should make a commercial out of that for the kind of kid we want in the program and the kind of kid he is.'' Hodgson said he was heading to the hospital for some stitches. ''I couldn't see the cut but it must have been bad because I kept bleeding,'' Hodgson said. ''It was just one of those things that you have to play through.'' Rutgers had a 68-63 lead with 57 seconds left on one of two free throws by Geoff Billet. His miss ended a string of 14 straight free throws by the Scarlet Knights. Griffin made two free throws with 43 seconds left to make it a three-point game and Billet, who was fouled with no time running off the clock, made two free throws. Jones, who finished with nine rebounds, added another nine seconds later to make it 71-65. Griffin's three-pointer made it a three-point game and Hodgson's free throw with 25 seconds left made it 72-68. Greer finished with 15 points and nine rebounds as Rutgers had a 34-32 advantage on the boards. ''If we rebound the ball the game is over,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. ''We have no excuses for our big people. If we don't rebound we can't be a good team. Our big men have to make up their minds they're going to rebound or we're not going to win.''