Despite playing in a gym located at the top of Manhattan College's steep campus, It was an uphill battle for Princeton against the homestanding Jaspers on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers fell behind 14-6 early and although they made several pushes to pull within one possession throughout the game, could never catch Manhattan.
"We were chasing the game, and that really makes it hard to get back into it," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson after his team's 70-60 loss. "We did, and then a couple other times down the road we couldn't turn the corner and that's been our season right now."
Tiger freshman Doug Davis’ career-best 27 points on 10-18 shooting was outshined by Chris Smith’s 35. Smith, the younger brother of Denver Nugget J.R. Smith, made his first seven jump shots on his way to 18 first half points.
"We made it tough on ourselves [early] in the sense that we were a little slow to react to Chris," Johnson said.
Denver (2-6) topped the visiting South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 62-58.
Craig Robinson and Oregon State (2-4) had to sweat one out Saturday night. The Beavers beat Nebraska 64-63.
Princeton recruit Mack Darrow scored 20 in Barrington's loss to Rolling Meadows. Future Tiger Will Barrett had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Central Bucks South in a win over Pennridge.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (4-4) lost 78-63 at George Washington.
Memphis vs. Georgetown - 2:00 pm ET - CBS
VCU vs. Richmond - 2:00 pm ET - ESPNU
MCCC vs. Fredrick - 5:00 pm ET
South Dakota State vs. Denver - 6:00 pm ET
Nebraska vs. Oregon State - 8:00 pm ET - FSN Northwest
Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson is interviewed by Big Sports 590 (.mp3) in advance of the Beavers' game with Nebraska. Here is video of Coach Robinson on The Best Damn Sports Show last night.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson & Pawel Buczak:
It was the perfect call. A play that Princeton hadn't run once in a game this season, one that caught Rutgers by surprise. A play they had been sitting on for a moment like this.
It was the perfect time. Trailing by one with :46.6 left to play and nine on the shot clock, the Tigers would get two possessions to the Scarlet Knights' one.
It was the perfect pass. A high inbounds diagonal lob from in front of the Princeton bench by Dan Mavraides to back-cutting center Pawel Buczak on the other side of the basket from the far end of a stack set.
It was perfect.
Almost.
Buczak was alone behind the defense, their heads turned, trying to react to what was happening. Buczak soared into the air above the iron to receive Mavraides' expertly-placed pass with two hands and lay the ball off the glass. But Buczak put a touch too much on his layup and the ball sailed strong off the backboard.
Instead of retaking the lead and being one defensive stop away from a victory, Princeton was playing defense still behind by one.
Down at the other end of Jadwin Gym, Mike Coburn thrust up an errant bank off a drive for Rutgers but Hamady Ndiaye crashed the boards and threw home Coburn's miss to send Rutgers up three with 10 seconds to go.
Two plays.
One made. One unfinished.
The difference between victory and a fourth straight home loss for Princeton.
"They got more penetration that we would have liked [on their final possession] and I think that created the offensive rebound opportunity," said Princeton coach Sydney Johnson.
"Tough luck for us."
Doug Davis' three point shot on the left arc that would have tied the game came up short of the rim and Rutgers had scored the last five points to defeat Princeton 49-44. It was the Scarlet Knights' 10th victory over the Tigers in their last 12 meetings.
Freshman center Gregory Echenique bumped and bodied his way to 15 points and 11 rebounds for Rutgers.
Dan Mavraides scored 11 off the bench to lead the Tigers, seven in the first half. Buczak and Zach Finley combined for 15 points and eight rebounds out of the center position for Princeton.
Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon sat down at Jadwin Gym on Tuesday morning to review the Tigers' games against South Carolina and St. Bonaventure and to preview this week's slate versus local foes Rutgers and Manhattan. This interview is 16:00+ in length.
Interviews with Coach Johnson appear on this site every week during the season.
Judson Wallace had a near-"triple double" over the weekend, scoring 18 points, grabbing 13 boards and handing out nine assists as Benetton Treviso defeated Scavolini Spar Pesaro, 103-97.
Staying in Italy for a moment, Mason Rocca tallied seven points and snatched eight rebounds in Armani Jeans Milano's 85-78 decision over Snaidero Udine.
The Daily Princetonian talks to Nick Lake about Princeton's loss to St. Bonaventure.
For a different viewpoint pertaining to Saturday night's game, there's the BonaBlog.
Where in the world is Will Venable? Playing for Cibao in the Dominican-Puerto Rican Interleague. Venable, who is hitting .292 this winter, was 1-5 with a run scored on Saturday as Gigantes topped Carolina 4-2.
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
