Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Doug Davis, Dan Mavraides & Marcus Schroeder:
Princeton coach Sydney Johnson was blunt.
Losing is terrible.
Losing hurts.
Losing stinks.
His Tigers were tired of losing and on Saturday the team did what they had been unable to do in five straight tight contests across December. When the score got close and the clock got late, they made just enough plays to win, defeating UNC Greensboro 65-55.
Dan Mavraides scored a career-high 17 points, including a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line in the second half.
Doug Davis set the tone with 15 in the first twenty minutes as Princeton opened up early leads of 15-3 and 30-15.
Junior center Pawel Buczak grabbed 10 rebounds, a new personal best.
"I probably won't be able to wipe the smile off my face," said Johnson following Princeton's third win of the season.
"We were attentive to what we had to do. We weren't perfect," Johnson added. "I think that against Rutgers we played well. Lafayette we played well. The ball didn't go in the basket and then we weren't perfect defensively. It's not much different tonight, it's just we made a few more shots."
The visiting Spartans cut the Tigers' 13 point second half lead to a scant three in the game's final minute, but Coach Johnson saw a poise in his players that may have been absent the previous month. "I think there was a little bit of a different feel in the huddle I sensed from them," Johnson observed. "Ultimately, we're trying to put them in situations where they can succeed, but then they have to follow through. I think they held it together today."
Mavraides agreed with his coach's analysis. "In practice we've been going at each other a lot. We've been in these close situations in practice every single day now. I think in the huddles everyone was positive. We knew that this was a game that we should win so we just carried it out on the floor."
"We're tired of losing," Mavraides stated plainly. "They're the team that's down and should have the pressure on them, we should feel calm and confident and when we come down on offense be able to run our stuff. We should be the confident team and I think we were tonight."
UNC Greensboro scored the game's first hoop, a long Daniel Oliver jumper, but Princeton answered with two free throws by Buczak and Davis' drive from the perimeter, set up by sound passing around the horn which put the Tigers in front for the day.
An inbound pass to Marcus Schroeder, who immediately found Davis up top when his defender slipped made the score 7-3. The Spartans switched to an extended 1-3-1 zone, with the top man hounding Princeton's center above the arc, but that did not last long, as Kareem Maddox found Davis on the wing for another long jumper.
The Tiger lead reached 12 when Schroeder hustled to save a loose ball from going out of bounds near mid-court and then found a wide open Mavraides in the far corner who took his time to set his feet for three.
UNCG closed to 21-13 on a three point shot by Mikko Koivisto with 8:58 left in the half.
Leading by nine, the Tigers went on a 9-2 run to earn their largest lead. Buczak set a high screen with the ball and handed off to Davis for a deep three well behind the orange line and on Princeton's next possession Buczak quickly found Davis on the outlet for a two-on-one with Nick Lake and Davis pulled up for a soft jumper that sent the TIgers up 15.
"It felt good to get on a little groove," said Davis of his first half offensive outburst. "When I had an open shot I was going to take it."
Greensboro scored the game's next six points, DeAngelo Jackson putting back Montel Smith's missed three to cut the lead down to seven and Princeton went into the locker room by that margin, 32-25.
Princeton scored eight of the next 10 at the start of the second half to rebuild their double digit lead. Mavraides started the run with a pull-up jumper. A drive off an inbounds pass by Maddox made the score 36-25. When Buczak was guarded at the top of the arc, he swiftly spun away from his man and swooped to the basket like Chris Marquardt. Mavraides went left as the Greensboro defense collectively went right and with his layup Princeton led 40-27.
Slowly but surely, the Spartans crept closer and closer. The 1-3-1 that was so quickly abandoned in the first half became Greensboro's primary defense. Two free throws by Ben Stywall with 13:29 left made the score 40-31 Tigers.
John Comfort's three point shot temporarily broke the zone and ended a stretch of four straight misses from outside to start the half, putting Princeton up 45-33.
The Tigers were in front by nine with 7:37 to go when Zach Finley picked up a loose ball in the paint and stumbled for two, but the Spartans scored four quick points when Jackson dunked emphatically with his left hand and then on Princeton's inbounds pass Davis bounced the ball into the paint under the home basket where he thought Schroeder would be waiting but instead found the hands of a cutting Koivisto who soared for two.
Kendall Toney got a deep wing jumper to go with Jason Briggs' hand in his face and the lead was cut down to five.
Maddox drove the right baseline, stopped and reversed his pivot under the rim, fouled by Toney as he went up. Maddox made one of two at the line and Smith had similar success at the line after he was fouled by Buczak on an offensive board.
Buczak fouled out trying to body Stywall on a drive to the basket and Stywall made one of two to inch Greensboro within 53-49.
Maddox took an ill-advised deep turnaround jumper, but the rebound went out of bounds on the baseline off UNC Greensboro. Finley could not finish inside when play resumed, Mavraides' touch was off on his putback and eventually Davis tracked the ball down and took it back towards mid-court.
The Spartans decided to foul Finley when he got the ball on the inbounds, the visitors' seventh team foul. Finley made his first free throw, but was off on the second. However, the loose ball on the rebound was kept alive by a hustling Mavraides and again deflected off Greensboro, this time into the Princeton bench.
Mavraides inbounded from an awkward angle at the far end of the Princeton bench and threw the ball away when trying to get the ball up top. Koivisto intercepted and was fouled by Maddox from behind on the drive. His two free throws made it a one possession game with 1:08 on the clock.
When the ball came into play, Koivisto immediately fouled Mavraides, who made both ends of the one-and-one to give Princeton a 56-51 advantage.
A long three by Toney was off the mark and Finley was fouled on the rebound. Finley made both at the line and the Tigers were on the way to breaking their losing streak.
Princeton was 9-10 at the free throw line in the final minute to seal the deal.
Notes:
-Princeton shot 21-55 from the field (38.2%) and 6-21 from three point range (28.6%). The Tigers made just one of 11 from behind the arc in the second half. The game was won at the free throw line, where the orange and black went 17-23 (73.9%).
-The Spartans were 16-54 on the day (29.6%), 4-17 from outside (23.5%) and 19-27 at the line (70.4%) after starting a woeful 1-5.
-The Tigers outrebounded UNC Greensboro 43-39 and snatched 13 offensive boards.
-Patrick Saunders missed his second straight game, but is expected to rejoin his teammates before Wednesday's game versus Lehigh.
-Comfort's six points were a career-high.
-Down the stretch, Coach Johnson subbed Davis and co-captain Jason Briggs for one another on offense and defense. Briggs' left wrist was taped up against UNC Greensboro, but the nature of the injury was unknown.
-Marcus Schroeder made his second straight start, and has played 58 minutes in the last two games after not getting off the bench in the three games that came before Lafayette. Schroeder had a day that closely resembled his best efforts from his first two seasons as a Tiger - taking two charges, hustling to save loose balls that kept possessions alive and scoring inside while being fouled to bump Princeton up 20-8. Schroeder earned a "you did a great job today" from his coach as he came out of the game with three seconds left.
