Balanced scoring and good substitutions were the keys to victory in Rec Hall last night as the men's basketball team disposed of Atlantic 10 rival Rutgers, 80-69.

The Lions (17-6, 10-4) had little trouble keeping Rutgers (12-13, 8-5) at arm's length. The majority of the time the difference in the score was eight or 10 points.

"I felt we played well," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "I don't think we had a really great defensive game, but we played very well offensively. We had to play well to beat this team. They have a heck of a club and they're very well-coached."

Freddie Barnes controlled the opening tip and the Lions immediately sprang out to a 6-0 lead. The Lion starters looked for each other inside and did not let the Scarlet Knights get many second chances on the boards.

DeRon Hayes got the Lions' ball rolling even faster with about 14 minutes left in the half, when he scored two quick hoops to bring the score to 14-7. Then James Barnes and Ed Fogell both came up with steals that further squelched any Rutgers' comeback attempts.

"This was an intensely played game by both teams," Rutgers coach Bob Wenzel said. "We have difficulty playing here, but we are making progress. But then, they have difficulty winning at our place. Other than that I thought this was a good game with good efforts. They are a very fine team."

Michael Jennings sent the game into halftime and the crowd into a frenzy when, with 1:26 remaining, he stole the ball from the Rutgers offense and dished it back to Freddie Barnes. Jennings sprinted up the floor as Barnes lobbed the ball back up to him. Beating a Rutgers defender to the Lions' basket, Jennings went airborne with a slam that was poetic.

The Knights got two quick hoops after that, but the Lions went to the locker room with momentum and a 42-34 lead.

Perhaps that momentum grew into a slight overconfidence during the intermission. When the teams came back to the floor, the Lions gave five quick fouls and Rutgers used the turnovers to pull back to within five points. Parkhill was lucky enough to get a TV timeout with just under 14 minutes left.

"At that point I realized we had to dig down and move our feet," Freddie Barnes said. "We weren't moving our feet, we were reaching in and we weren't playing good defense. And when we got together in the next huddle Coach said some things that got our minds back on playing good defense."

Once out of the huddle, the Lions reestablished their defense -- and their large lead. They got some help from Rutgers, which went on a fouling spree of its own, but a good portion of the effort came from the Lions' bench.

Freshman center Ricky Jolley came in with about 13 minutes left and came up with a critical basket and a few key rebounds. Jennings and Darrell Ricks also made good efforts at key moments.

"We really got something from the bench tonight," Parkhill said. "I felt that was really a key factor. Especially when Monie (Brown) got into foul trouble and Jimmy was down for a while. I thought this was a really good team effort tonight."

Further, the Lion starters contributed fairly even scoring to the win. In the last few minutes, most of the players even got to pad their averages a bit as Rutgers turned to fouling.

A large part of the Lions' effort was shouldered by freshman forward Hayes. He has had several fluctuations in his game during the season and has been on an upswing recently. Against Temple Tuesday, he scored 14 points and seven rebounds. Tonight he came away with a personal best 15 points and also added six boards.

"I'm starting to read the defense now," Hayes said. "Now I'm reading the spots and taking my time. Before I was running around like I had my head cut off. But now I'm playing smarter. The confidence was always there, I'm just being smarter."

In all, the Lions shot 51.6 percent from the floor to the Knights' 46 percent. They also outrebounded the Knights 42-23, one of the largest rebound margins the Lions have earned this season.

Next up for the Lions is a road trip to George Washington. It represents the final game in a two-week stretch of six tough matchups. After that, three games remain before the A-10 Tournament, so every win counts if the Lions hope to get a bid to any post-season play.