A common thread has connected Princeton’s three Ivy League losses this season: The inability to cut an opponent’s lead down to one possession in the second half when offered repeated opportunity. Tonight’s defeat at Yale was the most bitter of this trio of intertwined results, as the chances were numerous and comparatively the least difficult.
As occurred at Cornell and at Penn, starting with just under nine minutes left in regulation Princeton could not convert six straight shots to turn what had been as deep as a 13 point hole - dug primarily during a 9:20 first half scoreless stretch - into a one possession affair.
“Once again, you’re in a game where have to come back from so far down – that’s tough,” said head coach Mitch Henderson.
Ian Hummer eventually drew his team within 50-47 on a jumper over Greg Mangano before Mangano knocked down the Bulldogs’ only three point shot in 10 second half attempts.
A pair of layups by Mack Darrow had Princeton within two in the final minute, but needing a defensive stop Jeremiah Kreisberg was fouled receiving a wrap around pass and made both his free throws.
Kreisberg (9), Mangano (20 and 12 rebounds) and Reggie Willhite (20 points and nine rebounds) combined for 49 of Yale’s 58. The rest of the Bulldogs shot 2-18 for the game.
“We knew if we contained them we would have a chance of winning and that didn’t happen tonight,” Hummer said of Yale’s frontcourt. “They killed us on the inside.”
Hummer led the way for Princeton with 18 in defeat, eclipsing 1,000 points on a runner that was blocked by Mangano for a goaltending violation. Darrow added 11 but was 1-8 from three point range. Patrick Saunders supported the cause with 10.
Trying to capture Ian Hummer scoring his 1,000th point at Brown, I got these two plays instead: Denton Koon driving with his left and Douglas Davis rewarding Brendan Connolly running the floor for a dunk.
Today's Game:Princeton (11-9 / 2-2) vs. Yale (14-5 / 4-1) Location: John J. Lee Amphitheater - New Haven, CT Time: 7:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 143-81. Last meeting:Princeton 58 Yale 51 - 2/18/11
Princeton
Yale
3-2
Home Record
8-1
7-6
Away Record
5-4
1-1
Neutral Record
1-0
102
RPI
110
142
Sagarin
173
132
Pomeroy
180
64.7
Points / Game
71.7
62.8
Points Allowed / Game
65.6
.440
FG%
.448
.638
FT%
.698
.353
3PT FG%
.388
33.9
Rebounds / Game
38.8
9.5
Off. Rebounds / Game
12.4
-0.3
Rebounding Margin
+6.6
14.3
Assists / Game
14.2
13.1
Turnovers / Game
15.4
3.7
Blocks / Game
4.4
Hummer: 17.1
Points
Mangano: 18.9
Hummer: 7.7
Rebounds
Mangano: 9.9
Bray: 4.0
Assists
Willhite: 3.8
Hummer: 1.4
Steals
Willhite: 2.2
Hummer: 1.0
Blocks
Mangano: 2.5
Koon: .566
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Sherrod: .548
Saunders: .833
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Morgan: .909
Bray: .441
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Salafia: .481
USF vs. Georgetown - 11:00 am ET - ESPNU
Middle Tennessee vs. Denver - 4:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Oregon State vs. Utah - 5:00 pm ET
Richmond vs. Duquesne - 7:00 pm ET - ESPNU
Penn vs. Brown - 6:00 pm ET
Columbia vs. Harvard - 7:00 pm ET
Cornell vs. Dartmouth - 7:00 pm ET
Around the Ivy League: Yale (14-5 / 4-1) scored the last 10 points of the game to give Penn (11-10 / 3-1) their first conference loss, 60-53. Harvard (19-2 / 5-0) stayed perfect at home with a 71-60 win over Cornell (7-12 / 2-3). Mark Cisco's jumper with three seconds left was the difference as Columbia (13-8 / 2-3) clipped Dartmouth (4-17 / 0-5) by a pair.
Postgame audio - Brendan Connolly, Ben Hazel & Ian Hummer:
It was the proper definition of “a balanced effort.”
Eight Tigers played between 18 and 28 minutes for Princeton on Friday night at Brown. Those eight players each scored between seven and 12 points as the orange and black led by double digits in Providence for the night’s final 30 minutes.
“I thought we definitely had the right attitude tonight,” said head coach Mitch Henderson. “We were just more aggressive on the boards and that created some opportunities for us.”
Trailing 8-5, Princeton hit four straight three pointers and ran off 16 consecutive on the scoreboard, capping this stretch with a Brendan Connolly sky hook and tip follow. Connolly had 11 points off the bench.
Sophomore guard Ben Hazel made four of his seven three pointers for a career high 12, matched by Douglas Davis.
“Hazel was very good tonight,” Henderson acknowledged. “He gave us a lift off the bench.”
The Tigers held a 48-34 advantage at the break, their most first half points against a Division I opponent in at least 13 years. In the back frame this lead extended to as many as 23.
With his team shorthanded, Dan Mavraides stepped up for Aris Thessaloniki, scoring 18 points as the Yellows grabbed a Eurocup win over ASVEL Basket. You can watch the full game here.
Princeton recruit Mike Washington, Jr. had 14 for Oak Harbor in their final outing of the regular season.
Princeton heads on the road to Brown this Friday night and starts their return back down I-95 with a stop at Yale the subsequent evening, finally concluding a stretch of 12 consecutive DI road games that began in early December.
I've always found it unexpectedly difficult to locate people who follow the Bulldogs online, but for the site's first-ever Yale Know! Your! Foe! preview someone stepped up to my challenge.
Ian Halpern is one of the folks behind Ivy Hoops Online, a site covering all eight schools in the league which launched prior to this season. They're doing great work over there providing well-written previews and analysis, a much-needed addition to the Ivy basketball landscape.
I exchanged emails with Ian about Yale and our conversation comes after the jump.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. We'd love to talk with you.
Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon sat down in the Princeton halftime room this afternoon just after practice had concluded for the day and prior to the team's departure to Providence.
Henderson and Solomon reviewed Monday's loss to Penn in detail, previewed both Brown and Yale extensively and closed with Coach Henderson's Super Bowl prediction.
This exclusive Q&A is 12:00+ in length.
If you have questions for future interviews, please feel free to send them here.
A trip to Providence means exchanging Know! Your! Foe! messages with David “Bruno” Wise (pictured above), the number one lone Brown basketball fan I know. There isn't anyone else I'd want to be discussing Friday's game with and David provides great, detailed insight into the Bears, who are 7-14 this season, 1-3 in the Ivy League.
A Yale edition of K!Y!F! will run tomorrow on the site.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. We'd love to talk with you.
There are Brown and Yale editions of Know! Your! Foe! on deck. The Bulldogs preview will run tonight unless the responses about the Bears come in first.
While yesterday's tussle at The Palestra did not go as hoped, there was one great thing that came out of a Monday night trip to Philadelphia. Through sheer happenstance, my mom found herself seated next to David Zeft, who used to shoot photographs at Princeton games.
Zeft was kind enough to send me some selections from his collection today and I'm delighted to present this first batch of images to you.
Above Craig Robinson is going in for a layup above with a young Jay Wright (#14) watching under the basket. This was likely in the 1982-83 season opener.
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
