For what seemed like the entire second half of its game against Rutgers Friday night, the Princeton men's basketball team appeared to be down by six.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, that was the margin when the second half was over as well.

Princeton spent a frustrating evening trying to catch up to the Scarlet Knights and could never do it, as Rutgers used 22 points from Eli Carter and 16 from Mack Myles to defeat the Tigers by, what else, six points, by a count of 58-52 in front of 3,150 at Jadwin Gym.

Oh, it wasn't really six points the entire time. In fact, Princeton would get as close as one in the second half but could never get over the top.

As a result, the Tigers fall to 1-2 on the young season heading into a game Wednesday at Syracuse. Rutgers improved to 2-1.

Princeton jumped out to a 10-2 lead, but Rutgers was on fire from three-point range over the final 12 minutes of the first half, which ended with the Knights up by, what else, six points, at 33-27 after hitting 6 of 10 from distance.

Rutgers would attempt only three more three-pointers after that, making one, as the second half became more of a grind-it-out affair. The big number after intermission was 23.1, which was the Tigers' shooting percentage from three-point range, and Rutgers used a 42-24 rebounding edge to keep control.

Will Barrett led Princeton with 13 points, while Ian Hummer added 10 and Denton Koon added nine. Hummer also had six assists and four rebounds and is now 12th all-time in scoring at Princeton with 1,217 points, 22 behind Brian Taylor for 11th and 60 away from Gabe Lewullis for 10th.

Postgame notes

• Princeton was attempting to win three straight against Rutgers for the first time since the mid-1990s, but instead the Scarlet Knights defeated Princeton for the first time since Dec. 3, 2009.

• Will Barrett's 13 points gave him double-digit points in three straight games for the first time in his career.

• Rutgers limited Ian Hummer to one point in the second half, while Denton Koon had all nine of his points in the second half.

• T.J. Bray's eight rebounds tied a career high, a total he reached four times last season.

• Princeton's 18-rebound deficit was its largest since Feb. 13, 2009, when Yale outrebounded the Tigers by 20.

• Princeton started 1-5 last season before finishing 19-7 over the rest of the season.

• Princeton is shooting .292 (21-72) from beyond the arc over the three games this season, while opponents are shooting .571 (20-35).

• Princeton shot .315 (67-213) from beyond the arc over the first 10 games of last season (4-6 record) before warming up to shoot .407 (169-415) over the rest of the season (16-6 record).

• Princeton has attempted at least 23 3-pointers in each of the first three games this season. The Tigers tried that many over a three-game stretch only twice last season, and never over a four-game stretch. The most recent three-game stretch was Dec. 22-Jan. 1 against Siena, Florida State and Florida A&M.