Postgame audio - Zach Finley & Kareem Maddox:
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Nick Lake's 14 points led a balanced, surgical Princeton attack as the Tigers defeated Fordham 73-61 on Thanksgiving Eve.
Lake was one of three Tigers in double figures, joined by center Pawel Buczak's career-high 13 and a 11 for freshman Doug Davis. Kareem Maddox added eight points and seven rebounds.
While Davis reached double figures for the fourth straight time, Wednesday's game was more than just The Doug Davis Show.
"We had great contributions," said Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson. "Doug is a nice player, but it is definitely going to be more than him and it has to be if we expect to do anything this year."
Princeton anatomized Fordham's man-to-man defense, shooting a season-best 54.3% from the field.
The Tigers raced to a 22-8 lead out of the starting block, with six of Fordham's eight points coming on offensive putbacks. A Davis three point shot, set up by a driving Jason Briggs, put Princeton in front 5-4 early and the Tigers would lead for the rest of the night.
Buczak connected for the second time in his career from behind the arc when Maddox found him out of the post to boost the lead to four and Briggs left a bounce pass to a back-cutting Maddox for a two-handed finish that gave Princeton a 10-4 edge with 16:41 remaining.
Maddox got his hands on a Mike Moore pass at the top of the key and was able to spring clear of two Fordham defenders with just a couple of long strides. Once he was free, Maddox went up for a triumphant one-handed throwdown that sent Princeton up by eight.
Nick Lake, in off the bench, was open in the corner as a spinning Maddox found him out of the paint for three. After a missed layup by Fordham's Brenton Butler, a driving Buczak turned to feed Jason Briggs behind the stripe and the advantage had reached double figures.
The Tiger lead extended to 31-14 with 6:57 left before the break when Maddox was fouled by Butler trying to finish a backdoor bounce pass from Patrick Saunders. With the lead at 17, Princeton's demeanor changed. The Tigers began to settle for long jump shots and get away from what had been working on offense and as the team's help defense began to respond late on Fordham drives, the Rams conducted a 12-0 run entering the last media time out. On two occasions Princeton was forced to foul trying to slide over and stop Fordham penetration. Both times the result was a three point play.
"We weren't respecting our opponent [during that stretch]," Johnson concluded after the game. "I think that we felt too good about ourselves, and that's crazy to me, because we have no reason to feel that way. That was no way to go about our business, that last stretch [of the first half]."
Getting sliced apart by diagonal cuts, Fordham began to clog the paint on defense with their center, Luke Devine, giving Princeton center Zach Finley, who had never attempted a collegiate three point shot, extra space when he had the ball up top. Princeton's offense was less effective with an extra body lurking inside.
A pass by Lake to a curling Buczak helped Princeton achieve a 33-26 edge heading into the locker room.
"We just got a little overconfident," Maddox observed about the end of the first half. "We just had to lock up and do what we were doing at the beginning."
When play resumed, the lead was cut to five as Saunders fouled Mike Moore on a three point shot and Moore made two of his three attempts.
While Saunders had committed a needless foul, he more than made up for it on two of Princeton's subsequent offensive possessions. First Saunders rose up in the far corner across from the Tiger bench and fired in his first collegiate three point shot to take the lead back up to eight. With Princeton back in front by 12 after Briggs stole a Herb Tanner pass on the sideline and muscled his way to the rim while being fouled and Buczak drove into the paint for a lay-in of his own, Saunders hit Lake in the same spot where he had stood previously for another triple that forced Fordham to call time down 43-28.
On two occasions Fordham would draw within single digits, but each time Princeton outworked the Rams to build their lead back up.
Jio Fontan's wild runner went in to make the score 45-39 with 12:38 left. Davis rose up on the wing for a three and a minute later got his man in the air with a pump fake outside, took one lateral step to his left and connected again from deep to double the Tiger lead.
A quick Tanner jumper crept Fordham back within nine, but Princeton responded with a uncontested Finley layup and Lake's follow of a missed Finley drive.
The lead for the visitors reached 18 for the first time with 2:39 remaining as Maddox found himself alone inside and then Buczak swept one in with his left hand the next time down the court.
Secure that the result was in hand, Coach Johnson began to go to his bench, and following two minutes of exceptionally sloppy basketball the Tigers had their second straight road win.
"I think it was a good win for us," remarked Zach Finley "A lot of guys stepped up. Hopefully we can keep that going for the future." "We knew we could do it, but we had to prove it," added Maddox. "We know that we have a lot of players that can contribute and that makes it easier for everyone.
The laid-back Maddox put the night in the simplest of terms - "We have really good stuff and any chance we get to run it is good times. Good times."
If Princeton can continue to get similar efforts from across its lineup, there will be more good times in the future.
Notes:
-Nick Lake had a game-best nine rebounds, four on the offensive end. It is cliche to say a player "wanted it more" but there's no better way to describe what Lake did to retain possession on a missed Finley free throw. Lake and a larger Ram went up to fight for possession under the basket, their hands simultaneously on each side of the ball. When both men reached the floor Lake had ripped the ball into his arms and was already bounding back in the air to place the rebound home. "That kid, he's a worker," said an impressed Coach Johnson. "From the day that I got here I saw something in him. I never doubted his work ethic and it seems like some of his skill is catching up with how hard he works. He has the ultimate respect of this coaching staff and his teammates."
-Princeton grabbed 39 boards to Fordham's 28 and the Tigers have outrebounded their opponent in three of the season's first four games.
-The orange and black handed out a season-high 14 assists.
-In attendance at Rose Hill Gym was Freddy "Sez", banging his pan as hard and as often as he does during the summer at Yankee Stadium.
-Four of Princeton's 18 turnovers came in the game's final two minutes.
-Final numbers: Princeton was 25-46 from the floor (54.3%), 9-16 from outside (56.3%) and 14-18 at the line (77.8%). Fordham was 23-62 (37.1%) on the night, 2-13 from deep (15.4%) and 13-18 with their free throws (72.2%).
-Fordham's leading scorer, Chris Bethel, played just nine minutes for the Rams, eight in the first half. Bethel's first action of the second frame came when he returned to the floor with 9:45 to go and Fordham down 52-41. While Bethel was greeted by a healthy amount of applause by the Rams fans in attendence, he drove his coach apoplectic. Bethel airballed a jumper out of the post that overshot the rim at one end of the floor, then made the perplexing decision to not to guard Zach Finley inside at the opposite side of the gym, leaving Finley abandoned for an easy lay-in. Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg could not believe his eyes and called an immediate time out, pulling Bethel for the remainder of the game. Bethel had been on the floor for just 56 seconds before he got the hook.
