Derek Williams scored 22 points and made seven free throws in the final two minutes as Mercer (18-12) held off a frantic Essex rally to advance to the semifinals of the Region XIX tournament.
"That was a terrific effort," said Vikings coach Howie Levy following the 70-64 victory. "The last two days of practice were major battles between me and my team after that Harcum game. There is a way that they had to play to be successful and they did it and they were able to overcome a couple of mistakes."
Mercer trailed only once, at 7-6, and proceeded to score the game's next nine points as they opened up early advantages of 16-6 and 25-8.
"We never gave back the lead," Levy said with pride. "We really hung in there. I loved the way they shared the ball tonight."
The visiting Wolverines responded with a 13-1 spurt of their own to close within five, but every time Essex reached striking distance, Mercer found room to breathe.
Leading by five at the break, the Vikings scored the first nine points of the second half. Williams hit from the left corner to make it a 10 point game and Williams' penetration freed Quentin Lofton up top for a 42-29 advantage.
Back-to-back three pointers from Essex guard Saladine Collins drew the Wolverines within 65-64 in the final minute and Collins immediately stole a pass in the backcourt as Essex pressed and drove for a layup that would have put his team back in front. The shot was short off the rim and Williams was fouled, making one of two free throws.
Jahmal Scarborough carried the ball trying to split two defenders as he spun inside and Williams went back at the line, extending the Mercer lead to four.
Uros Kovacevic added 16 points, six rebounds and five rebounds. Isiah Andrews had 17 points and five boards for Mercer.
"There's more basketball left to play," Levy remarked. Last year at this time the Vikings' season was over following a bitter one point first round Region XIX tournament loss to Manor.
Now Mercer travels to Scranton, PA on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm ET, where they will play Del Tech Stanton.
"There's more improvements these guys can make," Levy said with a smile. "We're happy."
Winners of seven straight, Mercer County Community College was unable to slow down 24-0 Harcum on Tuesday night. The Bears from Bryn Mawr, ranked #1 in the NJCAA Divsion I men's basketball poll, raced to a 14-2 lead and the Vikings were unable to play the game at the pace they needed to stay close.
"You can't replicate what they do in practice, that's for sure," said Mercer head coach Howie Levy. "We've had a terrific year, we've played real well, but we've never faced anything like that."
By the time the Vikings settled down on both ends of the floor, the deficit was significant. Two baskets and two free throws following a technical foul on Harcum's Jeremiah Bowman drew Mercer within 33-25, but the Vikings could not get a stop - slapping out a defensive rebound did not create a transition opportunity that might have pulled Mercer closer. Instead a Harcum forward happily accepted the ball at the top of the arc and sized up a three that took the lead back to double figures.
As the Bears sent wave after wave of players into the rotation, Mercer was unable to contain all of Harcum's weapons and slow the Bears' repeated breakouts. In addition to a cadre of quick guards flying all over the court, Harcum also boasted the interior presences of 6'11" Diyaaldin Kelley and 6'10" Dutch center Berend Weijs.
A basket by Mercer's Paco Boussougou, fouled by Wilbur O'Neal on the play, made it a 64-52 score midway through the second half, but a swift 13-2 run cued by Harcum's swarming defense erased any thought of a comeback.
"It's pressure that [we] haven't seen all year and hopefully won't see again," Levy said of the Bears' active full court attack.
Mercer (17-12) will open Region XIX Tournament play on Wednesday night. The location of this game and the Vikings' opponent will be known on Monday.
Photos from today’s game courtesy of Stephen Goldsmith after the jump.
I didn't get a chance to attend tonight's Mercer game, but Stephen Goldsmith was on hand to take photographs. The Vikings evened their record at 10-10 with the five point win.
For the second straight year, Mercer County Community College scrimmaged the Princeton JV at Jadwin Gym. It was a great opportunity to watch two teams who run similar offenses face off and also a chance to observe several Tigers in action that have seen very limited playing time this season.
While the scrimmage was scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm ET, the two teams started early. Mercer had opened with a 10-0 and Princeton had answered with 10 straight by the time I arrived.
Someone I had not seen play previously was freshman forward Mack Darrow - who showed a quick first step to the basket and scored 17 points. Darrow wore #34 on Monday night instead of his varsity jersey number of #41. The Tiger JV was outfitted with Princeton's 2008-09 uniforms, complete with VBK memorial patches.
Scott Greenman is coaching the Princeton JV this year. Greenman sported a shirt from a Princeton summer camp with the mantra "One Goal. Make Shots" printed on the chest.
Greenman's offensive strategy was to put four players around the perimeter and repeatedly lob the ball inside to Brendan Connolly (#45). The Tigers' freshman center showed why he scored so many points back in Tennessee, finishing well when surrounded and making all three of his free throw tries.
Connolly ended the exhibition with 20 points.
Junior guard Bobby Foley, who hit seven three pointers the last time these two teams met, scored 11 for the Tigers. Foley was a surprising 1-5 at the free throw line.
John Comfort (#15, shooting) scored 13 points in the first half and 16 points in the second half, including six three pointers. His 29 led all scorers.
Comfort also had...
...an explosive breakaway dunk.
Back-to-back Comfort triples made it a 73-57 Tiger lead late in the second half.
Coach Levy joked that Greenman's strategy to play man on defense after missed Tiger shots and zone on defense after made Princeton baskets threw his team off.
The Vikings went on a 22-6 run to close within two in the final minute.
Javis Williams had a pair of impressive dunks during the run...
...plus a ridiculous 360 move to score inside.
Two Darrow free throws iced the win for the Princeton JV.
Greenman, assistant coach/shot clock operator Brian Earl, Levy and Roger Gordon talk after the scrimmage's conclusion.
Postgame audio - Coach Howie Levy (with an unexpected cameo from John Thompson III):
Early in the second half of Mercer County Community College's visit to the Verizon Center, a switch flipped.
Trailing 51-26 after falling behind by 20 at the break, the Vikings began to believe in the validity of their man offense sets, and pulled off an incredible comeback that would eventually knot the score with 2:15 to go at 70.
"The effort, the energy, the enthusiasm. I told them afterwards it was the first time that they acted like a team and played like a team," said Mercer coach Howie Levy. "It was nice to watch."
While MCCC was unable to get over that final hurdle, falling by six at the free throw line, it was a rally that appeared to unify the team behind their coach's vision.
"We just had to make a couple more foul shots and a couple more layups," said Levy wistfully after his team's surge came up short.
Photos from today's game courtesy of Stephen Goldsmith.
Mercer (1-1) dropped the second game of the MCCC Men's Classic. Guard Uros Kovacevic, who had been so impressive for the Vikings on Saturday afternoon did not suit up for the home team. Kovacevic sat out with an injury suffered against CCRI that made back-to-back games impossible.
Stephen Goldsmith was on hand to watch the action, and his photos follow.
Mercer County Community College (1-0) used a 19-2 run in the second half to open a tense season opener against the #9 ranked (NJCAA DII) Community College of Rhode Island, pulling away from a foe that defeated them twice last season.
Trailing 44-41 with 11 minutes to go, the Vikings hit three straight times from behind the arc on offense and freshman forward Gary Carthan absorbed consecutive charges on defense to create some distance from the visiting Knights.
Mercer plays against Community College of Philadelphia tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 pm ET in the second day of the school's MCCC Men's Classic.
Division I schools aren't allowed to hold their first official practices of the 2009-10 season until October 16th, but practice for Region XIX schools like Mercer County Community College starts up two weeks sooner, beginning last Thursday afternoon.
I had a chance to sit in on the Vikings' first practice, thanks to the invitation of head coach and former Princeton assistant Howie Levy.
Last year Mercer finished Levy's initial campaign as head man with a 13-15 record, falling by a point to Manor in the first round of the Region XIX tournament.
In the middle of the day on the first of October, I arrived at Mercer's gym to find 16 young men wearing a random assortment of short sleeve t-shirts, muscle Ts and basketball shorts working on their two-handed passing skills at center court under Levy's watchful eye.
Nondescript waves of players wearing everything from blue shorts with yellow trim, to gray sweatshorts and red mesh workout gear went baseline to baseline for four minutes at a time, trying to show variety bringing the ball up and down the floor, with a focus on improving their weak hand.
At one point a player was challenged by Levy to "do something else!" with the basketball. A behind-the-back move went awry and Levy immediately said with a chuckle "not that!"
This drill was replaced by a three man full court weave, similar to the five man weave shown on the Joe Scott "Princeton Offense" DVD here, with the ball rarely hitting the floor and no passes allowed traveling backwards behind the man with the ball.
After having sprinted from one end of the gym to the other repeatedly, a steady blur of red socks, white socks, black socks and gray socks, the challenge became to make three pointers as a team from three different positions on the court - top of the key, right corner and left corner - in a limited amount of time. Levy stressed the importance of making your first shot, and if you missed that shot, you better make your second shot. That advice didn't help the ball go through the basket often. The first shot was true. Few followed. When time expired, the team had connected 38 times.
The attention moved from dribbling and passing to team communication. In a series of different drills, the Mercer players were instructed how to protect the basket and stop the ball on the break - screaming (after much encouragement from their coach to increase their volume) "I've got the basket!" and "I've got the ball!" as loud as they could in the near-empty gym.
The size of the drill grew slowly. 2-on-3 defense became 3-on-4 defense and developed eventually to a 4-on-5.
While this group of players appeared to have played together during limited unofficial workouts and some had seen time for Coach Levy last season, all of the drills worked on what many of these freshmen and sophomores had taken for granted in high school. Levy was looking to turn this group into decisive players who made smart decisions.
At one point the play fell apart and Levy was left at midcourt with one of his most improved players, Marcus Jimenez, someone who had stood out to me watching the practice because he was both the smallest on the court and the most vocally enthusiastic of the bunch, constantly cheering his teammates on.
"Who was your high school coach?," Levy asked him.
Silence.
"Who was your high school coach?," Levy asked again.
Silence.
"I want you to tell that man over there who your high school coach was," Levy said, pointing in my direction as I sat in front of the bleachers.
Pause.
"Dave Orlandini."
I smiled, recognizing the name of a former Princeton standout.
The action resumed.
Before moving on to basic instructions about his offense, Levy had the team repeat the team three point shooting exercise they had struggled with earlier in the afternoon. This time they made 52, not breaking the goal of 60 threes their coach had set, but improving.
As I prepared to leave, Levy walked his team through two basic principles of his offensive scheme - setting up a back cut out of a feed to the post off the wing and then re-feeding the post from the opposite wing if the back cut isn't available. The variety of options the offense held was clear, as was the fact that things that are open in practice aren't always there as easily when playing against another team.
Well-executed plays earned a "not too bad" from Mercer's head coach, and anything less meant the team set up from the halfcourt line and started from scratch.
By the time I headed out the door and back into the crisp October air there were starting to be more and more "not too bads."
Mercer plays three scrimmages late this month before kicking off their season at home on November 7 with the MCCC Classic.
Today's Game:Princeton (12-12 / 7-4) vs. Columbia (11-15 / 6-6) Location: Levien Gym - New York, NY Time: 7:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 137-83. Last meeting:Princeton 63 Columbia 35 - 2/7/09.
Princeton
Columbia
8-6
Home Record
7-5
4-6
Away Record
3-9
0-0
Neutral Record
1-1
294
RPI
286
271
Sagarin
288
249
Pomeroy
279
58.6
Points / Game
60.8
57.1
Points Allowed / Game
63.3
.433
FG%
.405
.746
FT%
.666
.382
3PT FG%
.321
30.8
Rebounds / Game
34.4
7.7
Off. Rebounds / Game
11.0
11.3
Assists / Game
11.7
13.1
Turnovers / Game
14.4
3.1
Blocks / Game
2.1
Davis: 12.4
Points
Foley: 10.9
Finley: 4.4
Rebounds
Miller: 6.7
Schroeder: 3.0
Assists
Foley: 2.5
Mavraides: 1.2
Steals
Agho: 1.3
Saunders: 0.9
Blocks
Miller: 0.8
Buczak: .573
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Miller: .541
Maddox: .836
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Matsui: .929
Schroder: .548
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Scott: .439
Dartmouth vs. Yale - 7:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. Brown - 7:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Cornell - 7:00 pm ET
Oregon State (13-15) lost to UCLA, 79-54. Beavers head coach Craig Robinson will be on ESPN's Jim Rome Is Burning today.
Chris Mooney has signed a contract extension at Richmond.
Princeton recruit Will Barrett is profiled by phillyburbs.com.
A summary of the Mercer County Community College basketball season and an interview with Vikings coach Howie Levy, with pictures by princetonbasketball.com's own Stephen Goldsmith.
ESPN's Andy Katz writes about Northwestern's postseason chances.
princetonbasketball.com was founded on April 28th, 1998 in an attempt to provide fans of the Princeton Tigers and Ivy League basketball with the best on-line source for up-to-date news and information. We have since expanded to launch a companion site, Georgetown Basketball News.
As these sites have continued to grow we have increased our coverage to include additional teams with Princeton connections - the Richmond Spiders, Denver Pioneers, Oregon State Beavers, Fairfield Stags and Mercer County Community College Vikings - plus former Tigers playing professional baseball and basketball all over the world. This site is not directly affiliated with the Friends of Princeton Basketball, Princeton University or the Princeton athletic department.
Sun. 11/10 vs. Florida A&M
Sat. 11/16 at Butler
Wed. 11/20 vs. Lafayette
Sat. 11/23 at Rice
Tue. 11/26 vs. George Mason
Sat. 11/30 at Bucknell
Sat. 12/7 vs. FDU
Wed. 12/11 at Rutgers
Sat. 12/14 at Penn State
Fri. 12/20 vs. Portland*
Sat. 12/21 vs. Pacific*
Tue. 12/31 vs. Kent State
Sat. 1/4 at Liberty
Sat. 1/11 at Penn
Sun. 1/26 vs. Kean
Fri. 1/31 at Harvard
Sat. 2/1 at Dartmouth
Fri. 2/7 vs. Columbia
Sat. 2/8 vs. Cornell
Fri. 2/14 at Brown
Sat. 2/15 at Yale
Fri. 2/21 vs. Dartmouth
Sat. 2/22 vs. Harvard
Fri. 2/28 vs. Yale
Sat. 3/1 vs. Brown
Fri. 3/7 at Cornell
Sat. 3/8 at Columbia
Tue. 3/11 vs. Penn
2,503 - B. Bradley, 1962-65
1,625 - I. Hummer, 2009-13
1,550 - D. Davis, 2008-12
1,546 - K. Mueller, 1987-91
1,451 - P. Campbell, 1959-62
1,441 - C. Robinson, 1979-83
1,428 - B. Earl, 1995-99
1,365 - B. Scrabis, 1985-89
1,321 - G. Petrie, 1967-70
1,292 - H. Haabestad, 1952-55
1,277 - G. Lewullis, 1995-99
1,239 - B. Taylor, 1970-72
1,207 - S. Goodrich 1994-98
1,133 - F. Sowinski, 1975-78
1,130 - R. Hielscher, 1991-95
1,122 - C. Thomforde, 1966-69
1,099 - T. Manakas, 1970-73
1,090 - J. Wallace, 2001-05
1,088 - C. Belz, 1956-59
1,079 - B. Hauptfuhrer, 1973-76
1,076 - B. Roma, 1976-79
1,071 - C. Mooney, 1990-94
1,064 - A. Hyland, Jr., 1960-63
1,062 - L. Brangan, 1957-60
1,057 - A. Hill, 1973-76
1,054 - D. Mavraides, 2007-11
1,044 - S. Johnson, 1993-1997
1,031 - J. Hummer, 1967-70
1,010 - W. Venable, 2001-05
