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."
Davis began his evening on the bench in place of the significantly longer Kareem Maddox. When Princeton and Brown first faced off two weeks ago in Providence, the Bears were able to feed and re-feed the post to set up their leading scorer, Matt Mullery, at point-blank range. With Maddox guarding on the perimeter, keeping his active arms flailing and with Princeton looking to pressure the Brown ballhandlers on the wing, the entry angles were not as conducive for dumping the ball down again and again.
"It is pretty straightforward - they're going to tell you when they're looking to feed the post," Johnson observed. "Our guys were good at pushing up on guys when they knew they were looking in the paint."
Mullery did not attempt a shot inside the arc until there was 10:37 left in the first half and he did not score until the 7:23 mark.
Behind those seven straight baskets, the Tigers opened up an early 17-10 lead. Schroeder found Mavraides on the wing for a three to begin the scoring and a lob by Schroeder to Buczak following a Schroeder steal finished this five minute stretch.
Buczak scored nine during the run, including an elbow jumper and a three from the top of the arc set up by Schroeder dribbling to create space.
This seven point lead reached an apex of nine with 12:33 remaining when John Comfort was fouled on his was up and made both free throws.
Princeton was 7-8 from the field and had scored on nine of their first 12 possessions.
While that clip was not going to last, I don't think you could have foreseen the Tigers missing 15 of their next 16 shots.
Buczak left the ball out of the post for a cutting Mavraides and two free throws made the score 23-16 Tigers.
After Adrian Williams got his drive up and in for Brown, Buczak was isolated in the post and swooped over Mullery to keep the lead at seven. It was Princeton's only basket across this 12 minute swath.
Mullery's first hoop was followed by Peter Sullivan's basket, fouled on his way up by Davis.
A posting Chris Skrelja spotted Mullery on the other side of the rim and the game was quickly tied.
Davis somehow got the ball around Brown's Karrett Leffelman on a drive for two, but Sullivan answered in the post over Davis. Buczak tried to track down a high-bounding miss off a Davis three and fouled Sullivan in the process. It was Princeton's seventh team foul and Sullivan made both ends of his one-and-one, sending Brown off the floor up 29-27.
Both teams struggled to score as play resumed, Mullery getting deep position on Buczak and scoring to take the Bears' lead to five and force Buczak off the court with three fouls.
Backup center Zach Finley did not have a good night offensively - 0-4 from the field, unable to get any of his hook shots to drop - but Finley's two hand-off screens straddling the arc, the first given to Marcus Schroeder and the second deposited in the hands of Mavraides erased the five point deficit. Princeton led 33-32 with 15:01 to go.
Back-to-back threes by Davis, a quick release off a Mavriades drive and a jumper on the wing when Finley saw him from the top of the key, created a five point Tiger advantage.
Brown kept carving the game back within one, but Princeton began to string positive offensive series together. Schroeder found Mavraides stepping outside for a three that made the score 46-42, but Skrelja drove baseline and found Sullivan setting up from deep to pull Brown back.
In the final two minutes of action, clinging to a two point lead, the Tigers made plays at both ends.
Buczak poked an entry pass by Leffelman away for a steal.
Davis sprang high in the air for a fade-away deuce over Williams to make it a four point Princeton edge.
Again it was a Pawel Post Poke (tm) and the ball went back to the Tigers.
What looked to be a case of over-selflessness worked out just fine.
Patrick Saunders passed up an open three point look on the wing, passing to Buczak at the top of the arc, who declined to attempt an open shot, skipping the ball to Schroeder open in the far corner. Schroeder did not square up, going to his right where Mavraides was on the wing with the shot clock ticking towards zero. Mavraides accelerated and scored on the oncoming Mullery, pumping his fist from the baseline and boosting Princeton's lead to six.
Brown did not score in the final three minutes, as Princeton pulled away.
Coach Johnson was much happier with his team's defensive performance than he was last Saturday night when the Tigers took on Dartmouth. "We got deflections. We pressured the ball a bit more. At times they got offensive rebounds - key ones that hurt us, but we got our fair share of defensive rebounds as well," Johnson said. "I think the effort was there."
On a night where exceptional offensive execution bookended a poor shooting display, Princeton's defensive effort led them to their sixth victory in Ivy League action.
Notes:
-Princeton was 20-50 on the night (40.0%), 8-17 from three (47.1%) and 8-10 at the line (80.0%). Brown finished 18-52 (34.6%), 3-22 outside (13.6%) and 9-14 from the charity stripe (64.3%).
-Marcus Schroeder's seven assists equaled his career best, set in last season's finale versus Penn.
-Princeton's bench scored 24 points. Brown's bench was scoreless.
-Brown's 19 second half points were the fewest allowed by Princeton in the back end of an Ivy contest this year.
-Jesse Agel, the head coach of the Bears, shattered a clipboard while yelling at his team in the huddle with 2:07 remaining. A Brown assistant had to track down the metal portion of what had been a clipboard that had bounded onto the Carril Court logo several paces from the Brown bench.
