The Rutgers football team has been on the wrong side of some pretty embarrassing scores in recent years. In the last three seasons alone, they’ve lost 58-0, 78-0, 49-0, 56-0, and 52-3. It’s been a pretty demoralizing time and there isn’t much for the school to get excited about.
So, when Rutgers happens to find itself on the other side of an embarrassing output, we have to give credit where credit is due. The Rutgers men’s basketball team took on the Eastern Michigan Eagles on Monday night and ended up taking quite the lead into halftime.
What an opening half for Rutgers!
The Scarlet Knights' defense holds Eastern Michigan to 2-of-25 shooting in the first stanza to take a 31-4 lead at halftime #GardenStatement ⚔️🛡 pic.twitter.com/T2FBa2fHGC
— Rutgers Men’s Basketball 🏀 (@RutgersMBB) November 20, 2018
31 points for Rutgers is fine and all, but it’s that EMU number that should really jump out at you. The Eagles scored four points total in the first half, which tied the NCAA mark for fewest points in a half.
Eastern Michigan is the new favorite team of under bettors everywhere pic.twitter.com/mDG2cshEen
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 20, 2018
The Eagles got on the board at the 14-minute mark thanks to a jumper by Kevin McAdoo. After that, James Thompson IV made a layup at the 5:36 mark. Otherwise, EMU did not score one other basket the entire half.
Eastern Michigan…. Good Lord you are a D1 Program. This is an impossibility. pic.twitter.com/UssW3hWz0p
— Maximiliano Bretos (@MaxBretosSports) November 20, 2018
The ironic part of hitting this record is that the Eagles are now tied with Northern Illinois for the dubious feat, who did it in 2013 against…Eastern Michigan!
Eastern Michigan tied the NCAA record for fewest points in a half tonight with 4. They record they tied? Northern Illinois scoring 4 points in the first half of a 2013 game … against Eastern Michigan.@jon_bois celebrated that game appropriately. https://t.co/nGhAC37f1k
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) November 20, 2018
Eastern Michigan woke up a little bit in the second half and, at the time of this writing, have passed the 20-point mark on the day with a little over five minutes left in the game. So at least they got progressively better as the night went on. That’s something…right?
And you know, don’t overlook the possibility this is all payback for the way EMU beat Rutgers in football last year in one of the dumbest endings to a game you’ve ever seen.
