Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson & Douglas Davis:
The last seven times Princeton and Rutgers have faced off, the losing team has failed to exceed 50 points.
These seven games have been laggard, leaden affairs with both squads struggling to find the bottom of the basket.
Thursday night's game at the RAC added another torpid installment to a 116 game rivalry, one that both head coaches called "beautiful" afterwards.
But it was Rutgers’ Fred Hill who liked how the somnolent 54-44 decision played out more than Tigers head man Sydney Johnson.
Gregory Echenique had a career-high 21 points and 11 rebounds as he and and Hamady Ndiaye bullied Princeton inside, sending the Tigers to their fourth straight defeat.
Douglas Davis attacked the rim repeatedly and scored a season high 20 for Princeton, but no other Tiger tallied more than five.
"If you can grind it out, you can win one, and that's what Rutgers did," said Johnson - who fell to 0-3 coaching versus the Scarlet Knights.
Davis gave Princeton a three point lead on the Tigers' first possession, hitting from outside over Rutgers' leading scorer, Mike Rosario.
Hamady Ndiaye came off the bench to make it 3-2 two minutes later with a baseline jumper over the extended arm of Tiger center Pawel Buczak.
A Rosasio finger roll was blocked by the front of the rim, but Rosario immediately picked off Dan Mavraides' pass in the backcourt after Mavraides nabbed the rebound and was fouled by Mavraides as he tried to slip under Rosario's path. Both free throws were good.
The Tigers reclaimed the lead when Mavraides took the ball away from Rosario, put the ball in Davis' hands and Davis astutely spotted Patrick Saunders off the wing flashing diagonally to the basket.
Rosario, who came into Thursday averaging 17.6 points per game, was well-defended by Princeton. Marcus Schroeder chased Rosario all over the court, not allowing the sophomore to fire up free jumpers. Rosario finished 2-12 from the floor.
One of those two shots gave Rutgers a 7-6 lead. Rosario did a shimmy with his midsection on the right wing, which made Mavraides step back a hair. Rosario launched from outside and the Scarlet Knights were in front. This bucket, at the 13:14 mark, provided Rutgers an advantage that they would maintain throughout.
Nine straight points by Jonathan Mitchell extended the RU lead to seven, the last of these four baskets coming on a three pointer, with Buczak unable to reach him in the corner in time.
Both Zach Finley and Buczak were unable to get the ball in scoring position inside against Echenique and Ndiaye. When either got touches, they did not look confident trying to get their shots off and numerous attempts were flicked aside. Rutgers finished with nine blocked shots, seven by the Scarlet Knight centers.
As Princeton struggled to score and missed the open opportunities they had, Davis began to aggressively penetrate, enveloped by Echenique on two occasions as the 5'10" Davis went right at the 6'9", 265 lb center. Davis scored right at Echenique at the buzzer to pull the Tigers within 29-18.
Of Princeton's 24 first half shots, just five went in.
Davis' opening three. Saunders' cut for two. A Finley layup set up by a nice bounce pass between two men from freshman forward Will Barrett. Marcus Schroeder's desperation three pointer to bail out a possession as the shot clock ran low and Davis' hoop as the first half closed.
"If you stop them three, four, five minutes in a row and you don't come down and make them pay, you're just putting so much pressure on yourselves to be that good," Johnson said of his team's inability to score. "I think making a basket here or there will just ease things up for the guys and they'll be able to settle in. That will come, but it's been a long time coming now."
Johnson tried several different lineups looking for a five that could put points on the board. At one point, with Davis on the bench, Princeton sent Schroeder, Nick Lake, Ian Hummer, Finley and Buczak onto the court - a bigger lineup that played together for just under two minutes.
"I felt like to some extent we did a much better job of running our stuff," Johnson stated despite his team's offensive woes. "I think our big guys did have a little bit of trouble getting going, but I liked our focus relative to the last time out. It didn't always look pretty, but it was much prettier than it has been."
The start of the second half was the prettiest offensive stretch of the game for Princeton. Buczak took the ball away from behind Echenique, which led to a handoff screen between Buczak and Saunders that freed Saunders for three.
Davis poked a Rosario pass loose, skipped between two defenders and raced ahead to the basket, his layup blocked by a trailing Rosario for a goaltending violation as Rosario fell over Davis when both men spilled out of bounds. Princeton trailed by six and Rutgers called time.
A deep Davis two from the right side over Ndiaye further sliced the Rutgers lead to four and it was a ballgame.
An entry pass to Ndiaye rolled out of bounds on the baseline and Princeton had the ball back with a chance to make it a one possession game, but Schroeder was trapped in the post after a copious amount of dribbling and could not get the ball to Buczak before the shot clock expired.
Beatty popped for a three, his only bucket of the game, to make it a seven point lead.
Lake and Schroeder were short on three point tries for Princeton and Echenique controlled a short baseline floater by Beatty next to the basket, fouled by Finley and converting both free throws.
In transition after a Davis shot inside did not fall, Rosario took a pull-up three with Schroeder tight on him that went down and Rutgers had rebuilt their lead to 12.
Princeton could not get the Scarlet Knight lead down below nine, as Echenique's inside presence was too large.
Dane Miller's no look pass to Echenique, who banked the diagonal feed home made it 39-27. Davis tried to counter with a similarly sharp shovel to Finley open underneath, but Finley lost the ball out of bounds before he could go up.
Echenique scored nine straight in this stretch. Miller found him open behind Buczak for a lay-in, drawing contact from the Princeton center. When a posting Austin Johnson recognized Echenique on the other side of the lane it was 43-31 Rutgers with 8:00 showing.
"He's a load," said Johnson of Echenique's 17 second half points.
The lead ballooned to 19 on two more Echenique free throws before both teams took out their starters.
For the sixth time in seven sodden showdowns, the game went to Rutgers. It was the Scarlet Knights' 10th win over Princeton in 11 meetings, despite the home team shooting just 37.0% themselves.
Notes:
-With their 15-52 effort against the Scarlet Knights, Princeton has sunk to 39.0% from the floor through six games. The Tigers were 6-20 from three at Rutgers (30.0%) and 8-11 at the line (72.7%).
-Rutgers outrebounded Princeton 41-28. The Tigers grabbed 11 offensive boards and the Scarlet Knights had 13 second chances.
-The Tigers' struggle to get production out of the center position continued. Pawel Buczak is 4-11 from three point range this season (36.4%) but an ineffective 7-28 inside the arc (25.0%).
-Echenique was 11-12 at the free throw line versus Princeton and is 20-22 in his last two games after starting the season 3-12 from the line.
