Oregon State (4-3) blew out Cal State Bakersfield, 74-39.
Around the Ivy League: Jeremy Lin matched his career high with 30 points, but Harvard (6-2) came up just short at UConn. The Huskies held on, 79-73. Cornell (7-2) won its fifth straight, 78-66 over St. Joe's.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Patrick Saunders, Douglas Davis & Dan Mavraides:
Princeton had sunk to a woeful 38.5% shooting percentage for the season after yet another cold half to start Sunday’s early evening game against Lafayette.
The second twenty minutes were another story - the Tigers’ best performance from the floor (and most points in a half) since the start of the opener against Central Michigan.
Converting 62.5% of their shots, and eight of 12 three pointers, Princeton reversed an early five point second half hole and pulled away from the Leopards for the 62-48 win.
Douglas Davis hit seven times from outside for 23 points, his second straight 20+ point effort. Davis’ seven threes were the most for a Princeton player since Noah Savage connected on seven occasions against Brown in a February 2008 overtime loss.
"These guys should be proud of themselves," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson following the end of his team's four game losing streak. "The guts that they showed over these last two games during a tough stretch - to respond how they did against Rutgers and Lafayette, I have nothing but praise."
Patrick Saunders matched a career high with 15 and Dan Mavraides got back on track with 13.
Jared Mintz was Lafayette’s lone double figure representative, scoring 17.
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, Chris Wright & Greg Monroe:
The faster, stronger and taller Georgetown men's basketball team did what faster, stronger and taller basketball teams are supposed to do when playing a depleted American squad that graduated five starters from last year's Patriot League NCAA tournament representatives.
Jumping passing lanes and swiping 10 steals, including a career-best five takeaways by sophomore guard Jason Clark.
Dominating the boards to a 43-32 count, with center Greg Monroe snatching a personal high of 13.
Shooting an even 50.0% from the floor (27-54) and holding the crosstown visitors to a 27.1% percentage (16-59) while blocking nine shots.
Shutting down American's leading scorer Stephen Lumpkins, who was a woeful 1-17 from the floor and missed his last 14 shots.
Back-to-back three pointers by Chris Wright and Austin Freeman eight minutes in gave Georgetown a lead they would not relinquish. Three straight steals by Clark, two of which resulted in breakaway dunks took the lead up to 10 and the Hoyas would extend that advantage to as many as 31 on two occasions in the second half.
It was the final tuneup for Georgetown (6-0) before the Hoyas go to Madison Square Garden and Anaheim's Honda Center this week to face two Top 25 foes - Butler and Washington.
"Georgetown was just too good," American head coach Jeff Jones plainly stated following his team's eighth loss of the season.
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.
Frederick vs. MCCC - 12:00 pm ET
American vs. Georgetown - 4:00 pm ET
Denver vs. Colorado State - 9:00 pm ET
Columbia vs. Stony Brook - 2:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Minnesota - 3:30 pm ET
The Star Ledger offers up a few more notes from the Princeton/Rutgers game.
Here's a photo gallery of Princeton's trip to George Washington.
Oregon State (3-3) won the Pac-10's first game in the Hardwood Challenge, coming back on Colorado in the final minute for a five point victory.
Mercer and Georgetown play today at the Verizon Center in DC. We'll be driving down shortly to cover both, with postgame audio and Stephen Goldsmith's photo essays coming later this evening. Updates all Saturday on our Twitter feed.
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
