No. 24 Rutgers pulls away from pesky Merrimack

Ace Bailey recorded 23 points and 10 rebounds, Dylan Harper scored 14 points and No. 24 Rutgers remained unbeaten thanks to a 74-63 win over visiting Merrimack on Wednesday in Piscataway, N.J.Rutgers (4-0) didn’t lead by double digits until the second half, and the Scarlet Knights allowed Merrimack to pull within 65-58 with 2:53 to play after a 7-0 run.Harper followed his own missed shot and made a putback dunk at the 2:29 mark, ending a three-minute, 13-second Rutgers scoring drought. He scored again on the next possession and Bailey drilled a 3-pointer to remove any chance of a final Merrimack rally.Harper added eight rebounds and six assists. Fellow freshman Lathan Sommerville had nine points and Jordan Derkack, playing against his former team, tallied seven points, six rebounds and five assists.Adam “Budd” Clark powered Merrimack (1-3) with 22 points and six assists. Sean Trumper added 10 points for the Warriors.Merrimack committed 20 fouls and had two players foul out. The Scarlet Knights outscored the Warriors 17-7 at the foul line and 21-12 from the 3-point arc.Early in the contest, Harper had a 3-pointer and set up Bailey for a thunderous one-handed dunk on back-to-back possessions, but Merrimack trimmed an eight-point deficit to 15-14 with 12:26 left in the first half.The Scarlet Knights couldn’t grow their lead greater than five points until Merrimack hit a scoring drought lasting 5:38. The Warriors missed nine straight shots in that span.