FGCU 78 Georgetown 68.
Postgame audio from Coach John Thompson III, Nate Lubick, Markel Starks and Otto Porter can be found after the jump. I have something different than my usual recap planned, but that will have to wait until the morning.
Syracuse 58 Georgetown 55 (OT).
Syracuse/Georgetown III wasn't pretty. In fact at times it approached the antithesis of beautiful, but it certainly was memorable.
The Hoyas came from down 12 in the second half to reach overtime on a pair of Otto Porter free throws but never once regained a lead they lost midway through the opening frame.
Trailing by three with :14.4 left, Georgetown (25-6) was unable to get a tying shot off. John Thompson III drew up a play that would run Porter off a screen but Porter became trapped on the far wing as Syracuse (25-8) chewed up on the arc defensively and threw an off-kilter pass away to the Orange's C.J. Fair.
"[The Orange] played it well," Thompson III acknowledged.
Fair missed a pair of potentially game-sealing free throws with three ticks on the clock but Jabril Trawick's running 35' shot at the buzzer was off target.
Syracuse had survived to attain their final Big East title game despite 1-6 shooting from the line in overtime. The Hoyas' offense stagnated with 3:36 to go in overtime as their point guard Markel Starks fouled out via a bump on a drive.
Postgame audio from Coach John Thompson III, Otto Porter and Markel Starks plus the rest of this recap can be found after the jump.
Georgetown 62 Cincinnati 43.
Georgetown was steady for both the opening 15 minutes and the closing 15 minutes of the Big East Tournament quarterfinals' opening game. It was more than enough to sandwich a shakier middle section.
"In the first half we were letting them get open shots that they're going to make," said Hoya head coach John Thompson III. "In the second half we were much more attentive and then our guys did a very decent job of guarding their penetration."
Thompson's squad outscored Cincinnati 24-8 to start the contest and closed on a 31-10 run after the Bearcats had taken their first lead since the extremely early-going.
Postgame audio from Coach John Thompson III, Otto Porter, D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera and Markel Starks plus the rest of this recap can be found after the jump.
Princeton 71 Penn 58.
If this was in fact the end - and it felt more finite afterwards than expected - then at least Princeton' senior class went out on the high note of their seventh win over Penn in eight tries.
In perhaps his final collegiate contest, Ian Hummer scored 10 of his 18 points down the last 9:20 as the Tigers were able to eventually break open a bittersweet regular season finale at The Palestra. A game that saw neither team in front by more than five across the opening 35 minutes fell apart for the Quakers at the close.
T.J. Bray curled behind a Hummer screen for a wing three to make it 56-51 Princeton with 5:04 left and following Tony Hicks' miss of a left baseline jumper guarded well by Chris Clement, Hummer took a Bray feed and glided to his left for a basket as Patrick Lucas-Perry fouled him, the Tiger senior punching the padding surrounding the basket support as he let loose with a scream.
While Lucas-Perry responded with a right side three over Clement, Bray found Hummer again cutting inside. Subsequent to a Miles Cartwright turnover Clement fought off Lucas-Perry on a drive for a nine point margin.
Once Penn fell down by three possessions they made repeated bad decisions with the ball and took ill-advised jumpers.
In addition to Hummer's 18, Bray added 13 plus three assists without a turnover while Will Barrett and Mack Darrow each contributed 11. Darrow (who hit double figures for just the second time this year) and fellow senior Brendan Connolly made the start for Princeton in what could have been the final contest of their respective careers.
It was the first time Darrow, Connolly and Hummer began a game on the floor together.
“We’re happy to send those guys out the right way,” head coach Mitch Henderson said of the senior-fueled victory.
Hicks led Penn with 22 but petered out after a stellar 17 point first half. Shooting 7-9 in the opening 20 minutes, Hicks was 2-10 in the back frame and did not score the final 14:56.
Postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Ian Hummer & T.J. Bray plus the rest of this recap can be found after the jump.
Brown 80 Princeton 67.
Watching Brown disintegrate Princeton's hope at capturing even a share of the 2012-13 Ivy League title, my thoughts turned to another group of New Jersey stalwarts who have been making music since the three point line was first introduced to college basketball - Yo La Tengo.
Their 13th and most recent album "Fade" opens as follows:
Sometimes the bad guys come out on top
Sometimes the good guys lose
We try not to lose our hearts
Not to lose our minds
Seven days ago there was an audible roar emanating from the home locker room at Jadwin Gym. I heard it, as did everyone else walking out of the media room. The Tigers had moved past Harvard by half a game in the conference standings. All that separated Princeton from the NCAA Tournament was a path of three straight difficult yet manageable road games.
A week later there was little more than silence as morose Princeton assistant coaches filed out of a locker room in Providence filled equally with tears and disbelief.
From the joy of first place to eliminated with one contest left to play.
A loss at Yale. A loss at Brown.
Just like that.
All weekend the Tigers played from behind, searching for a single play or moment of significance that could turn their fortunes around. Princeton only led briefly throughout these 80 minutes in New Haven and Providence, scoring the first four points tonight (a Denton Koon hook and a Hans Brase face up jumper) before the Bears answered with 10 straight. From that point the home team had some degree of control over the ballgame that Princeton could never recapture.
Postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson plus the rest of this recap can be found after the jump.
Yale 71 Princeton 66.
Yale couldn’t miss and now to make the NCAA Tournament, Princeton can’t lose again.
When the Tigers and Bulldogs met down at Jadwin Gym a month ago, Yale had an incredible effective field goal percentage of 77.5% in the first half as they took an eight point lead at the break and eventually ended Princeton’s 22 game home winning streak.
It didn't seem like James Jones' team could do much better than that but on Friday night the sweep-minded Bulldogs remarkably topped that original number handily, going 14-20 from the floor and 6-8 from three in the opening 20 minutes (85.0 EFG%), building as large as a 14 point lead on an Austin Morgan three with 4:03 left before intermission.
“Not much changed from the first game to the second game. Yale was the better team,” Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson admitted. “They had a step on us the whole night.”
Down 12 at the break, Princeton turned in a fairly spectacular second half of their own shooting the ball - 63.6% from the floor and 8-16 from outside the arc - but never slowed Yale down enough and never reached the point where they had possession and a chance to take their first lead.
On five occasions however the Tigers had a shot to pull even, the last coming when T.J. Bray drove the length of the floor and stopped to fire from three, only to have his attempt blocked soundly by Armani Cotton.
Cotton added two free throws with under a second left for the final margin.
Bray scored all 17 of his points in the second half. Will Barrett was 4-6 from three point range on his way to 16 and Denton Koon had 13. Ian Hummer added nine points and seven assists without a turnover.
While the Tigers had 12 miscues versus Bulldog pressure, only five came in the second frame.
Michael Grace and Greg Kelly each totaled 13 for Yale. The Elis shot 60.5% for the ballgame, 60% from three point range and 16-20 from the free throw line.
As Yale was holding off Princeton, Harvard was rallying past Columbia as the Tigers and Crimson flip-flopped a half game lead in the Ivy League for the second time in as many contests.
Postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, T.J. Bray & Will Barrett plus the rest of this recap can all found after the jump.
Princeton 68 Dartmouth 63.
If it wasn't for a foot injury endured during Princeton's non-conference slate last season, tonight would have been Will Barrett's Senior Night.
The re-junior with an extra year of eligibility remaining lifted his former 2013 classmates in their final contest at Jadwin Gym, scoring a career high 23 on 5-11 three point shooting to rally an initially clumsy and careless band of Tigers past Dartmouth.
Barrett made three consecutive shots from behind the arc with Princeton up five, helping extend a late advantage to 57-47 with 3:26 remaining.
The Tigers converted their final 10 free throws to hold off the Big Green before five points against the far bench reserves in the last seven seconds made the final closer than it seemed.
“I’m really happy for the senior class to get a home sweep,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson. “It wasn’t a pretty game for us but I think this kind of happens in the [Ivy] League.”
In addition to Barrett's outside shooting, T.J. Bray hit four of five times from deep on his way to 21 points and Ian Hummer totaled 13 in his ultimate game at home.
A night after going 1-10 from three, the Tigers returned to form connecting on 10-19 outside attempts including an 8-13 second half.
Randy Melville's son Tyler was superb for Dartmouth, scoring a personal best 23 on 9-11 attempts. He was joined by Gabas Maldunas (17) in double figures.
Princeton trailed 19-11 with 6:35 left in the first half and 21-20 at the intermission before returning on an 11-3 run.
Postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Will Barrett & Brendan Connolly plus the rest of this recap can all found after the jump.
Princeton 58 Harvard 53.
What coaches refer to as "winning plays" are sometimes simply small moments, magnified.
On a dominant evening where he scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, the biggest play Ian Hummer made was a slap in the air.
That five fingered chop caught Mack Darrow's missed front end free throw bounding high off the back rim with :07.6 remaining and the Tigers desperately holding on to a 54-53 lead.
Hummer's decision to use a curved palm instead of going for a difficult offensive rebound versus Steve Moundou-Missi directed the ball towards the Tigers' bench.
On an evening where he scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds, the biggest play T.J. Bray made was a sprint to the sidelines.
Bray raced to the ball and with a curl of his hand as he sailed out of bounds with a crash, sent possession down the floor to Denton Koon in the backcourt.
Koon was fouled with :02.7 showing and converted both his one-and-one attempts, making it a three point game.
A three quarter court pass by Harvard's Jonah Travis was knocked away by Hummer to Bray and Bray secured a game wherein Princeton had just one field goal in the final 9:58 of the second half - which just happened to be a Hummer tip follow of a posting Bray's miss that moved the Tigers back up one after the Crimson had taken their first lead of the contest.
Beyond Hummer and Bray, no other Princeton player scored more than six.
Moundou-Missi was Harvard high man, totaling 15 including a perfect 7-7 from the line. Wesley Saunders added 11 and freshman point Siyani Chambers 10, both on 4-10 shooting.
Two of the top 10 three point shooting teams in the country combined to go 1-18 on the night with the only make coming from Mack Darrow with 9:58 left that boosted the Tigers up 46-36.
Harvard would answer with a 10-0 run.
Postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Ian Hummer & T.J. Bray plus the rest of this recap can be found after the jump.
Mercer 48 Burlington 47.
Postgame audio - Coach Howie Levy:
It was a comeback every bit as improbable as Princeton's 1999 Miracle at the Palestra and the only connection between the Tigers' rally from down 27 in the second half against Penn and what Mercer County Community College (20-9) pulled off with less time remaining tonight in the Region XIX quarterfinals versus Burlington was Howie Levy '85 on the sidelines.
"It brings back good memories," Levy said with a chuckle following his team's 20th victory of the season. "I've been on the right side of it both times!"
Lost offensively versus a switching zone, unable to score with any consistency for almost 30 minutes, lacking energy on several defensive rebounds and decisively trailing 38-19 with 10:03 to go, the Vikings unexpectedly found their rhythm, forced a number of steals in the half court and ran off the game's next 21 points uninterrupted to take a two point lead with 4:05 remaining.
"Holy cow. That was something else," said Levy. "These guys looked liked they were throwing in the towel. Somewhere, somehow - they figured it out. When they started playing hard and started playing together is when things started going our way."
Also like the 50-49 comeback in Philadelphia, Mercer caught the Barons with plenty of time remaining.
"When we got the lead I was chuckling to myself," Levy admitted. "I could not believe we got the lead."
"With about four minutes to go it became a basketball game," Levy added. "That's what you wanted."
While both ends of a one-and-one from MCCC's Mustafa El-Amin moved the home team in front three with just over a minute to go, a left wing falling down three pointer evened the score for just the third time all night.
Mercer was tied up in the post, which gave Burlington the ball back with :42.9 showing.
With seven seconds between the shot clock and the game clock, the Barons ran time down until Tariq Jett was bumped going to his left on the far baseline. At the line Jett put his team back in front by one but his second free throw was a touch long.
Andre Wilburn rebounded in traffic and as Burlington relaxed slightly on defense Tyliek Kimbrough was able to break open from Christopher Thompson cutting in the opposite direction on the left wing, take a long outlet and drive for a basket just beyond Jacob Ogenyi's reach with four ticks to go.
It was Kimbrough's only basket of the game after missing his first six attempts.
A deep right wing three by Thompson was off the mark at the buzzer and a small court-storming took place on the floor named after former coach Howie Landa as Mercer's players rightfully went berserk.
El-Amin scored 20 for Mercer, the only Viking in double figures. It was El-Amin who authored the comeback with a series of three point shots, shooting 7-15 from the field while the rest of his team went 11-34.
It sounds funny in retrospect but a key to the victory might have been MCCC holding the Barons to 18 first half points while Mercer was only mustering 13 of their own.
Otherwise the deficit might have been even larger, though perhaps it only meant the comeback that followed would have been all the more incredible.
Princeton 72 Cornell 53.
Cornell didn't get a lot of clean looks at the basket in the opening 20 minutes at Newman Arena on Saturday night and the few open shots they attempted uniformly came up short. It was a horrid 5-32 frame by the Big Red (15.6%) and a simultaneously stifling defensive performance from Princeton as the Tigers held Cornell to one field goal over a 7:05 span opening up a 33-14 lead at the break.
“I really liked the way we controlled the game with our defense early on,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson following the Tigers’ first Ivy road weekend sweep since a visit to the Empire State in February 2011.
It looked like the second half would be more of the same as Will Barrett's three pushed Princeton up 22 when play resumed. The lead was a healthy 42-24 with 14:30 to go when Cornell mounted a very serious run, playing their penetrate-and-then-press game to run off 17 of the following 23 points and actually close within seven.
Chris Clement's lefty drive and kick to T.J. Bray for three out of the right corner returned the lead to double figures with 7:47 showing and from that point forward control of the contest was returned.
“Threes like that kill a defense and give us so much energy,” Bray said. “Denton [Koon] set a good flare screen on it too. Everyone made the right play.”
Come the final buzzer Princeton could look up and see an overall margin equal to where the game stood at halftime but it was as agonizing a 19 point win as conceivable.
Ian Hummer was superb throughout - 10-12 from the floor and 3-3 at the line for 23 points. Barrett added 13 and Koon 11. Clement topped his career high of six set the previous evening by a digit.
As a team Princeton went 22-25 from the stripe, 14-15 in the second half.
Shonn Miller was impressive for Cornell, scoring 23 by going 10-11 at the line with 10 rebounds.
A full recap plus postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Ian Hummer & T.J. Bray can be found after the jump.
Princeton 65 Columbia 40.
If you have little choice but to win your final seven conference games in order to have a chance at the Ivy League title, the first victory is likely the hardest.
Someone forgot to tell Princeton that.
Bolstered by stellar defense off the bench from Chris Clement and holding the Lions scoreless for the final 4:27 of the first half and then nearly three minutes into the vesper frame while recording 15 consecutive points in the process, the Tigers led by as many as 31 down the stretch at Levien Gym.
“We were sort of alive on defense,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson. “I thought all of the things that bothered us in the first game [a tense 72-66 Tiger victory at Jadwin Gym] we corrected.”
Denton Koon paced the way with a career high 23 on 9-13 shooting including eight straight to make it 61-32 Princeton.
Ian Hummer added 17 and five assists while Clement contributed a personal best six in addition to a block, a steal and his active hands creating multiple loose balls.
Maodo Lo totaled 15 for Columbia, 10 of which came in the opening 12 minutes. Beyond that no Lion recorded more than six.
Princeton's senior class will graduate a perfect 8-0 versus Columbia. The only real obstacle in the Tigers' way on the day was some serious tunnel traffic that caused the visiting team to arrive just 50 minutes prior to tipoff.
The rest of this recap plus postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Denton Koon, Ian Hummer & Chris Clement can be found after the jump.
Harvard 69 Princeton 57.
"Sometimes you talk about '50/50' balls. It was like '90/10' [Harvard] tonight." - Princeton coach Mitch Henderson
The Crimson did all the little things better than the Tigers at Lavietes Pavilion, translated all the small plays into huge ones and on the heels of consecutive three point shots by Laurent Rivard that were both set up via controlling loose balls before the Tigers could snare them, took a lead late in the first half they would sustain throughout the final 20 minutes.
Rivard's second jumper was an absurd corkscrew blind turn-around three as time expired, but it would not have occurred if Princeton had been able to grab an Ian Hummer block that hung in the air pleading for two hands to snatch it. Rivard's unbelievable shot made it 32-28 Crimson at intermission.
The Harvard lead would extend to as many as 11 before five straight by the Tigers midway through the back stanza put them in position to make a run. However Princeton had three tries at the rim roll off and missed the front end of a one-and-one before the unexpectedly poised Crimson responded with four straight points from Kenyatta Smith and the Tigers were slowly submerged.
Smith, making his second straight start after 15 consecutive games coming off the bench, was 5-5 from the field with seven rebounds and six blocks, all in just 20 minutes. In addition to 14 points Saturday he swatted an unreal 16 shots on the weekend.
Steve Moundou-Missi added 14 off the pine, the only player on either side to score who wasn't a starter. Rivard's four threes gave him 12 and freshman Siyani Chambers added 11.
For Princeton, Ian Hummer fought his way to 18 somewhat quietly with T.J. Bray and Will Barrett adding 11. Hans Brase also had 10 before fouling out.
The rest of this recap plus postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson & Ian Hummer can be found after the jump.
