Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Douglas Davis & Dan Mavraides:
Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson has cried at the Palestra.
He cried in the locker room his freshman year, his sophomore year and his junior year after his Tiger teams came up short against the Penn Quakers.
A decade later, in his second season as Princeton's head coach, and for the first time in five years, the Tigers went into the Palestra on Tuesday night and came away with a victory.
"I told the guys in the locker room, I cried like a baby when I lost here and I lost here three times. I shed a lot of tears," an emotional Johnson said after his first win over Penn as a coach. "To win in the Palestra, for a young man who wears orange and black, I can't put it into words. To be able to coach a team that's won here, with the way these guys gutted it out...If I try, I'll lose it."
Trailing by a point, sophomore guard Dan Mavraides made four free throws in the final 30 seconds as the Tigers squeaked past Penn by three. Mavraides finished with a game-high 17 and was a perfect 5-5 from the line.
Center Pawel Buczak matched his career high with 15 for Princeton, going 7-7 at the stripe.
Douglas Davis added 10, finishing third all-time behind Chris Young and Spencer Gloger in points scored by a Tiger freshman (333).
Princeton did not miss a free throw, 13-13 on the night.
Zack Rosen scored 13 for Penn, all in the second half.
Princeton ends the season 8-6 in Ivy play (13-14 overall), tied for second place with Yale.
Postgame audio - Douglas Davis & Patrick Saunders:
The difference between the effort Princeton put forth on Friday at Columbia and the effort exerted on Saturday at Cornell was like night and day. Unfortunately, the result was the same.
The Big Red completed an undefeated home schedule with a 60-51 win over the Tigers. Princeton was within six with under a minute to go, but Cornell held off the Tigers from the free throw line. The victory was the Big Red's 21st straight at Newman Arena.
Princeton freshmen Douglas Davis and Patrick Saunders scored 16 and 13 off the bench respectively. Saunders also grabbed a team-best seven boards.
Ryan Wittman had 12 on 4-12 shooting, one of four Cornell players in double figures.
While the Tigers were knocked out of contention for the 2009 Ivy League championship with their flat 14 point loss at Columbia, that did not dissuade Princeton from playing inspired basketball the next night against the Big Red.
"Tonight was a good effort. Not good enough, and we're not happy about that, but it was a completely different effort than last night," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "I'm scratching my head. We didn't get after it [on Friday], Columbia outplayed us and we lose. Tonight we got after it, Cornell made enough plays and we lose, but the type of effort we gave tonight will win ballgames."
When Princeton faced Columbia senior sharpshooter K.J. Matsui over the past four years, they held him in check.
Matsui is a great shooter (40.9% from three point range for his career), a poor ballhandler and a bad defender, so the Tigers understood that if Matsui couldn't get the ball in his hands, he couldn't hurt them. Faceguarding him and chasing him around multiple screens, the Tigers took this weapon out of Columbia's arsenal.
Matsui had cracked double figures just once in seven games against Princeton (16 in an overtime loss to the Tigers the first time he played them), and beyond that had never hit more than three three point shots in a game when up against the orange and black. The ball wasn't in his hands enough to make a significant impact.
On Friday night at Levien Gym, seeing the Tigers for a final time, Matsui helped extinguish Princeton's slim hopes of an Ivy League championship with 17 points, including five shots from outside the arc on eight attempts.
Columbia's 58-44 victory eliminated Princeton in the race for the Ivy title.
Two quick curls for early Matsui triples helped the Lions to a 10-2 lead out of the gate and back-to-back shots by Matsui with under seven minutes to go turned a five point lead into an 11 point cushion.
"We weren't focused [on Matsui]," said a dismayed Princeton coach Sydney Johnson. "It is just too bad, because I felt like he is a player that we can limit, and he has been held in check in the past, but we just weren't focused enough to do it."
Douglas Davis scored 10 for the Tigers, eight in the first half.
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, Greg Monroe & Chris Wright:
A moribund St. John's team, who had gone over 13 minutes without a field goal to start the second half, had missed 14 straight shots and had fallen behind Georgetown by 14 points was somehow able to pull even with the Hoyas at the end of regulation and smash Georgetown's postseason chances in overtime.
It was the first overtime game in the 91 meetings between the two Big East rivals.
Two free throws by St. John's Rob Thomas with two seconds left sent the game to the extra frame.
Thomas' offensive rebound and two-handed dunk with one on the shot clock gave the Red Storm a three point lead with 15 seconds left in OT and DaJuan Summers' deep, open three point shot for Georgetown at the buzzer was long off the iron.
Greg Monroe scored a game-high 18 for the Hoyas, but chose to pass the ball on several occasions close to the rim where he should have been less selfish.
Thomas finished with a career-high 16 points and seven boards off the bench.
St. John's outrebounded Georgetown 46-25.
Starting forward Austin Freeman was unable to play the Hoyas. Freeman tried to go through warmups at Madison Square Garden despite an injured hip but could not get his body to respond.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Jason Briggs & Michael Strittmatter:
Senior Night can make you sappy if you let it.
It is the abrupt close of a chapter that most do not want to shut. It is the culmination of four years of work, much of which is unseen by anyone beyond teammates and coaches. It is a chance for family, friends and fans to watch college seniors play at home for the last time.
But it wasn't perfunctory sappiness that inserted both Jason Briggs and Michael Strittmatter in Princeton's starting lineup for their final game at Jadwin Gym.
Briggs, who barely got off the bench his first two seasons and Strittmatter, who has battled injuries each of the last two years, are self-proclaimed "best friends" and for the first time in their careers, they came out for the opening tip together.
The two seniors earned their spots, and they validated their coach's decision.
The duo of Briggs and Strittmatter helped the Tigers race to an immediate 14-0 lead and Princeton held off repeated Yale rallies from that point forward for the wire-to-wire eight point win.
Dan Mavraides’ 16 led the Tigers, with Douglas Davis adding 12, all in the second half.
Unlike in New Haven, Yale was unable to pound the ball inside to their big men and crash the boards at will. Princeton ended up winning the overall rebounding battle 24-22.
Alex Zampier was high man for the Bulldogs with 19.
"I felt like the guys executed the gameplan to a "T," said Princeton coach Sydney Johnson after his team's sweep of the penultimate Ivy weekend. "Although it might not have looked pretty, it was exactly what we wanted."
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, DaJuan Summers & Chris Wright:
Georgetown somehow overcame 25 turnovers and won their fifth straight over Villanova, 56-54.
DaJuan Summers, who committed eight of his team's turnovers, scored a game-high 16, one of three Hoyas in double figures.
Chris Wright hounded Villanova's Scottie Reynolds into 2-10 shooting and six gaffes while tallying 13 and ran out the clock with a burst down the sideline as Georgetown inbounded up a pair with three seconds remaining.
Nikita Mescheriakov added a career-best 11 in a much-needed win for the Hoyas.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Marcus Schroeder & Douglas Davis:
Princeton made their first seven shots.
Princeton made their last two shots.
In between, the Tigers were a miserable 11-43 from the field (25.6%).
Yet Princeton was able to pull off a 56-48 win over Brown on Friday night at Jadwin Gym because of a solid team effort defensively and some tactical decisions that took away several of the Bears' strengths.
Douglas Davis scored 14 of his 16 in the second half and picked up 14 of the Tigers' last 20 points.
Davis, who came off the bench for the first time all season after starting the previous 22 games, was one of three Tigers in double figures. Dan Mavraides added 14, including four three pointers. Pawel Buczak tallied 11 despite not attempting a field goal after intermission.
Peter Sullivan's game-best 21 paced Brown. Chris Skrelja added seven and 16 rebounds.
"We're fighting and scrapping for everything that we can get," said Princeton head man Sydney Johnson. "[Brown] is a team that handled us at their place, and so for us to come away with a win and do it in a way where it wasn't pretty but we win, that's all that matters right now."
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Douglas Davis & Dan Mavraides:
One night after surviving at the horn against Harvard, it was Princeton who missed a tying shot at the end of regulation, as the Tigers fell 66-63 to Dartmouth. Dan Mavraides curled for a three pointer with under a second left, but could not convert the look.
Alex Barnett, the Ivy League's leading scorer, started the game 0-4 from the field, but finished with 22 in the final 26 minutes for the Big Green and was 7-7 at the free throw line, giving Dartmouth a one point lead with :47 remaining and making two additional pairs to hold off the Tigers.
Mavriades’ 19 led Princeton. Douglas Davis scored all 16 of his points in the second half.
"We gave up 66 points, the most any [Ivy] team has scored in this gym all year. We were awful defensively," Princeton coach Sydney Johnson said, clearly disappointed by how his team played on defense.
Mercer's season came to an end with a one point loss to Manor in the first round of the Region XIX tournament.
Despite playing with a defensive enthusiasm that had not been evident the other three times I saw the Vikings in action, the Blue Jays' outside shooters were able to find enough space for timely baskets in the second half. Mercer's 4-5 lesser defensive possessions did them in.
The Vikings trailed by 10, 33-23 late in the first half, but a 9-0 run that spanned intermission got the home team back in it and Mercer took the lead by one with under nine minutes to go.
Todd Jones' open three point shot with :40 remaining that would have tied the score at 55 was off the mark and Stefan Thompson sealed the win for Manor with two free throws in the final 10 seconds.
A three point shot from the near corner at the buzzer provided the final margin.
The Vikings (13-15) finished their season with five straight losses.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Douglas Davis & Dan Mavraides:
All Drew Housman could do was slap the floor.
Housman’s long three point shot at the buzzer from the Princeton crest on the near side of Jadwin Gym sailed just wide the mark, giving the Tigers a 58-55 win. The victory ended Princeton's three game losing streak.
Princeton did not record a field goal in the final 6:13 of the second half, but won the game at the free throw line, where they were 12-14 in the final four minutes - allowing them to hold off the Crimson.
Harvard has not won at Princeton since 1989.
Douglas Davis was the Tigers' lone double figure scorer, tallying 12 on 5-7 shooting. Princeton's leading man in Ivy play, Dan Mavraides, recorded six points - all of which came at the free throw line and all of which came in the final :32 of action.
Bouncing back from his scoreless 37 minutes on the bench versus Penn three nights ago, Kareem Maddox scored eight and grabbed four boards. All came in the second half.
"This wasn't a pretty win for us by any stretch, but I think it is a mark for us to not play well for 40 minutes and still pull out a win," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "We don't expect that the rest of the season but we'll take it for now."
Postgame audio - Jarhon Giddings & Kevin Anderson:
Despite giving up 26 offensive boards, the Richmond Spiders (13-13) picked up their fifth win in Atlantic 10 play on Tuesday night, defeating La Salle 62-53. Sophmore guard Kevin Anderson had a career-best 28 on a variety of silken mid-range jumpers.
It was my long-overdue first opportunity to see Richmond play in person since former Princeton standout Chris Mooney had taken the program’s reins in 2005.
La Salle (14-11) was coming off a win over Big 5 rival St. Joe’s on Valentine’s Day and Richmond had lost five of their previous six, but watching the two teams’ body language as the game unfolded, you would have thought that the Spiders were the team entering Tuesday’s contest with momentum.
Richmond opened the game on a 14-4 run, and survived a strong La Salle push to start the second half before answering with a decisive 15-2 tear to retake control.
“I was very pleased with how we played,” said Mooney after the win. “Kevin Anderson was tremendous throughout the game. Coming in I thought if we got killed on the offensive backboard, we would have a long night and we did get killed on the offensive backboard, but we were able to survive it.”
The inability to grab rebounds was the Spiders’ biggest flaw. La Salle had more offensive boards (15) than Richmond had total rebounds (13) in the first half.
By switching defenses repeatedly, La Salle was never able to find their comfort level on offense. I was impressed that the Spiders went to a spread 2-3 zone when La Salle’s begoggled big man Vernon Goodridge was on the bench. The zone would have allowed Goodridge to thrive in the center of the paint, so Mooney saved this D only for times when Goodridge was off the floor.
It was interesting to hear Mooney talk about the way he thought about his different zones and how they could be effective against La Salle’s personnel. The Explorers were 2-14 from outside against Richmond, 1-10 in the second half, which allowed Mooney to adjust the defense further.
“They didn’t shoot the ball well from three,” Mooney recognized. “When any team is playing defense, but especially us, if [our opponent] is not shooting well, if we can take that extra step off of their guy, that is a big step. All of a sudden you’re not giving up as much penetration, you’re not giving up as much creativity because you’re able to cut that offensive player off.”
Their creativity sapped, La Salle had just two options – crash the boards and continue to force jumpers on the perimeter. The Explorers shot 6-32 in the first half (18.8%) and 28.1% for the game.
Some of Richmond’s offensive sets would be familiar to Princeton fans. There were multiple dribble handoffs and bounce passes to the elbow that started cutters in motion, but Richmond used passes from the wing diagonal to the top on the key to set up drives and pull-up jumpers for Anderson in a way I don’t believe the Tigers utilize.
La Salle scored 10 straight out of the break to erase a five point deficit before Kevin Smith banked one home inside at the 14:49 mark, starting the Richmond response.
While the Spiders also struggled from the three point line (2-12), Richmond’s leading scorer, David Gonzalvez was on target from the top of the arc as Richmond went back in front 41-38 on their first three of the night. Gonzalvez finished with a season-low five points.
Jahron Giddings’ dunk follow, one of 12 offensive boards for Richmond, made it a nine point lead and Ryan Butler - a former Princeton target who has grown to 6’7” since opting for the Spiders - took the lead to 10 with a triple from dead on with 3:33 left, icing the game.
“I thought our aggressiveness increased or improved during the course of the second half,” Mooney said. While the Spiders allowed another 11 offensive boards after intermission, they outrebounded La Salle 19-18 in the second half.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Zach Finley & Patrick Saunders:
For the next few weeks, Freshman forward Patrick Saunders will remember his first Penn/Princeton game every time he looks in the mirror.
Saunders needed stitches under his right eye following the Tigers' 62-55 overtime loss to Penn, the recipient of an elbow to the face midway through the second half doled out by Quaker Conor Turley.
"It's Princeton/Penn," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "Maybe sometimes if no one gets hurt it's not a Princeton/Penn game."
The Tigers were the ones hurting at the final buzzer after dropping their fifth straight game to their rivals from Philadelphia.
Despite shooting 4-17 from the field, Tyler Bernardini led all scorers with 18 points, one of three Quakers in double figures. Bernardini was 9-11 at the free throw line.
Starting at forward for the Tigers, Zach Finley recorded Princeton’s first double-double of the season with 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Saunders added 11 points, nine rebounds and six blocks off the bench before fouling out.
Penn grabbed 18 offensive rebounds. Princeton committed 20 turnovers.
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
