Watch: Ace Bailey lifts off to finish impressive alley-oop from Dylan Harper 

With under 30 seconds left in the first half of their game against the UCLA Bruins, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey made an exhilarating highlight. Right after sophomore Sebastian Mack made both of his freebies on the other end, Harper set up a halfcourt play for the Rutgers Scarlett Knights.

After big man Lathan Sommerville gave the freshman star a screen on the left of his defender, Harper would split the defense of his man and the trailing defender before driving down the middle of the lane. He would find a cutting Bailey at high speed, as he would lob it up to the athletic wing for an explosive two-handed flush.

Check out the impressive alley-oop from two of the best first-year standouts this 2024-2025 season below:

The highlight play would bring Rutgers to within three points of UCLA's lead to end the first half of action, 33-30. Bouncing off of this play, Bailey would immediately put his team within striking distance of getting the edge in the opening seconds of the second half. He would get an offensive board off a Sommerville miss, and then nail a second chance jumper.

After completing a defensive stop on the other end by way of a Sommerville block and carom, Harper would find the bottom of the net with his three-point attempt to give the Scarlett Knights the advantage, 35-33. Time and time again, the 1-2 punch of Harper and Bailey would show why they are leading the program's charge this year with game takeovers such as these.

Eventually, Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper and the rest of the Rutgers squad would pull away from the Bruins and end up with a seven-point triumph, 75-68. This gives them their second win of the 2025 Big Ten conference, putting their record at 2-4 thus far.

Their next game will be on the road against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Thursday where they will hope to move towards a .500 conference standing to pair up with their already 9-8 overall record.

The Bailey-Harper tandem continues to put up remarkable stats

Once again, Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper put up outstanding stat lines in Monday's dub. The former was named the Player of the Game after putting up 20 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, a steal and three blocks. Meanwhile, the latter followed suit with 18 markers of his own along with four boards, four dimes and two stocks (steals plus blocks).

As Rutgers possesses two of the most highly-touted rookies this college basketball season, more wins should be expected. Both first-year standouts are slated to be one-and-dones this campaign, so look to the Scarlett Knights' coaching staff to take advantage of their skill set for the time they have with each other.