Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Postgame audio - Dan Mavraides:
Postgame audio - Douglas Davis & Patrick Saunders:
Marcus Schroeder and Dan Mavraides spend extra time as a pair after almost every Princeton practice shooting together. One fires up jumpers. The other rebounds and passes back out. The two have developed a chemistry in front of 7,000 empty seats at Jadwin Gym.
In the late stages of Saturday night's Ivy League game at Harvard, in front of a packed Lavietes Pavilion, things were as simple under pressure as they are between two teammates putting in additional work on their three point shots with no one watching.
"[Marcus] always knows where I am," said Mavraides. "He's a great point guard. He's always able to get in there, draw my man and kick it out to me. He's the best at that."
Two times in the final four minutes of an exciting, well-played basketball game between Princeton and Harvard, where neither team led by more than six points throughout, Schroeder drove to the basket, attracted the attention of the defense and knew where he could find his shooting partner outside the arc. Two times Mavraides set his feet, squared his shoulders and knocked down the open jumper.
Both shots gave Princeton a six point advantage and combined with perfect 8-8 shooting at the free throw line down the stretch, were enough to overcome an incredible 27 point performance by junior Crimson guard Jeremy Lin as the Tigers improved to 2-0 in Ivy League play.
Mavraides finished the 77-71 victory with a career high 22 on 6-8 shooting.
Schroeder dished out a season-best six assists. Princeton had a season high of 18 assists compared to just six turnovers, four of which came in the first half.
"He's been good," understated Tiger head man Sydney Johnson said of his junior point guard. "Seeing guys with character on our team responding, it is really nice. His parents, his high school coach, Coach Scott, they've all prepared him for a moment like this and I'm really happy for him."
Mavraides and Schroeder were just part of the story of how Princeton stayed close to Harvard despite struggling defensively in the first half and then matched Lin basket for basket in the second half to improve to 2-0 in conference play for the second straight season.
A big part of why Princeton won were the contributions of two freshmen. Douglas Davis' 19 points were no surprise, even though Davis admitted after the weekend was over that he had been nervous preceding his initial foray into Ivy action. The road trip was the best basketball Patrick Saunders has played since first donning the orange and black. Saunders seems to know where he can find his openings as a forward in the offense, either stepping outside for jump shots, driving to set up teammates, posting when necessary or sliding to the right spot inside to lay home feeds.
Mavraides was quick to praise Saunders' development. "Pat's playing with more confidence now," Mavriades said. "He's going into his moves just like he does in practice, knocking down big shots, grabbing big rebounds.
"I have a lot of trust in Pat, knowing that when it gets crucial Pat is going to come through for you," added Davis about his classmate. "I am always going to keep faith in Pat throughout the rest of our time here at Princeton.
In the first half, Princeton was unable to stop Harvard from penetrating to the basket. Help defense was late or nonexistent. Guards flew to the rim. But because the Tigers were able to execute at their side of the gym, the score was even at 32 halfway home.
"It didn't feel like we played well in the first half but we looked up at the scoreboard and we were tied going into the locker room," Saunders said. "It is a good feeling to know that we didn't do what we needed to do on defense but we were still in the game."
While Princeton was struggling defensively, their offense never let the game get out of hand. Harvard's lead reached six on just one occasion (23-17 on a Lin free throw with 7:09 to go) but the Tigers would consistently creep within one possession before Harvard took their lead back up to five.
"I think we're a little bit better when we're getting down," Johnson observed. "We're a little less squeamish. We're believing in ourselves a little bit more and that confidence is really helping us."
"That was very important, especially in an away game in the Ivy League," Mavraides added. "We didn't let them run away with it, we never let them push it to 10. I think it starts on the defensive end. This year all the coaches have been pushing for us to play with intensity on the defensive end - getting stops and we know we can run our offense anytime we want."
Six of the first seven fouls of the game were called on Princeton, a fact that Johnson made sure the officiating crew was aware of. Johnson held six fingers up to the referee and then held up one finger while repeatedly mouthing "six to one! six to one!" The Tigers' centers, Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley each got in foul trouble. Buczak picked up his second personal with just over seven minutes to go and Finley drew his third with two minutes to play before the half but Johnson had no third option to bring off the bench to spell Finley.
"It was choppy, at least on our end [because of the whistles]," said Johnson. "Maybe [Harvard] felt like they were able to get in a flow offensively and defensively, but we weren't because of how the game was being called."
Things came easier on offense in the second half, starting with Princeton's first possession. Davis was able spring open at the top of the key and make the most of a Kareem Maddox pass, connecting to give the Tigers their first lead of the night.
Drew Housman and Buczak traded layups before Andrew Pusar tracked down a missed three from Peter Boehm and passed back to Boehm in stride as Boehm got back up the court to tie the score at 37.
Pusar put Harvard back up one with a free throw after he was swiped by Buczak on his way to the basket and scored. The foul was Buczak's third and Finley replaced him on the floor.
At the other end of the gym, Finley was overplayed well beyond the top of the arc by Harvard forward Keith Wright. With the shot clock into single digits Finley went right by Wright to his left and saw an uninterrupted path to the basket. With no one to stop him, Finley skied in the paint to the rim and surprised the crowd by throwing the ball down with one hand.
Jeremy Lin, who was averaging 17.8 points per game heading into Harvard's meeting with Princeton, made five straight jump shots of increasing degrees of difficulty. Down one with 13:37 to go, Lin connected and immediately after Davis could not do the same on a quick answer, Lin faked a three and canned a long two off the dribble.
Following a Davis drive that created a Saunders spin and score, Lin drove on Davis and drew a whistle, converting both free throws.
Schroder somehow found Saunders hanging out alone under the hoop for two and Princeton trailed 46-45 with 12:07 to go.
Lin disregarded the tough defense Schroeder was playing on him and banked one home to make it a three point game again.
Mavriades popped from in front of the Princeton bench to tie the score, but was beaten by Lin on another jumper seconds later.
When his one man run was over, Lin had scored Harvard's first 14 points out of the locker room, two of his free throws making the score 54-52 Crimson and giving Buczak four personal fouls.
"We've got to do a little bit better job of understanding that [players like Lin and Alex Barnett] are trying to take the game over and make somebody else beat us," said Johnson as he reflected on Lin's impressive night. "I don't think we did a great job of that so hopefully we can learn from it and it will help us for later on down the road."
Saunders tied the game for the seventh time with a deep jump hook on the left baseline.
A whistle on Finley battling with Wright in the post finished Finley's night earlier than hoped. The junior from South Dakota went to the sidelines with a quality stat line - eight points and five rebounds in 12 minutes of action plus a perfect 4-4 at the free throw line. Wright converted both his chances and Harvard had the two point edge.
Lin finally proved human, too strong on a jumper and Davis answered with a deep two to tie things again.
With the long arms of Kareem Maddox now defending Lin, and with Maddox instructed repeatedly by the Princeton coaching staff to keep his feet locked to the floor when Lin would invariably try to pump fake Maddox into the air, Lin was short on another jumper.
Following a foul on Wright for pushing Buczak in the back down low, Schroeder inbounded under the Princeton basket to Maddox in the near corner, setting up a designed play where Davis used a screen at the free throw line and arrived from the paint up top as the ball was sailing to greet him. Davis was on the money and Princeton had a three point lead again.
Lin drove on the right side, but passed on the shot in lieu of a feed to Doug Miller on the other side of the basket.
At the 4:38 mark Maddox bounced a pass to a cutting Mavriades on the left side and Mavraides sailed up with his left hand for two off glass.
Housman was fouled by Davis, Davis' fourth personal. Housman could only convert his second at the line and the Princeton lead was 61-59. With Davis now in foul trouble, Johnson chose to try and keep him off the floor on defense, rotating the foul-saddled Buczak and Saunders in and out with co-captain Nick Lake to avoid additional Tiger disqualifications.
Against minimal pressure, Buczak brought the ball up the floor on a possession that ended when, with six seconds on the shot clock, Schroeder began a slow, purposeful path to the basket that concluded with a foul being called on Housman.
Returning from the game's final media time out, Schroeder hit both his chances at the line and the Tigers had their first four point lead.
Housman split another pair, setting up Schroeder's first connection with Mavraides. Schroeder went all the way under the backboard to create enough room to rifle the ball with one hand out to his shooting partner.
If you thought the six point cushion would be enough, you haven't been to a Princeton/Harvard game in Cambridge in the last nine seasons. Housman answered with a rainbow to halve the Harvard deficit.
As the Crimson pressured Princeton in the backcourt, Davis accidently dribbled the ball off his foot, and by the time he was able to track down the rolling sphere, a ten second violation had occurred.
Pusar's three point shot in the far corner, set up by a Lin drive, that would have tied the game was off the mark and Princeton had escaped disaster for the moment.
Schroeder got the ball to Buczak and the junior center's turnaround hook went down with exactly one minute to go. Princeton was back up five.
Lin pulled up in the paint with a high arcing jumper for two and Harvard called time down three with :51.6 on the clock.
With the game in the balance, Schroeder found Mavraides again, driving on the left and passing to the right for Mavraides' fourth three of the game and a poised Princeton squad was heading home with an unexpectedly pleasant start to Ivy play.
"As time has gone on during the season we've been playing better together and getting more confidence together," Mavraides concluded. "I think a huge development in this team is we're learning how to be composed down the stretch."
"We'll probably enjoy this all of Saturday and a little bit of Sunday and then come back on Monday to try and get some work done," said Johnson of his team's first Ivy road sweep since 2006.
On Friday night, the play of Buczak solidified a victory over Dartmouth. One night later it was different players showing the same steady hand to create the same end result. Combine those performances and Princeton is one of just two Ivy teams that can boast a perfect conference mark.
Notes:
-Both teams shot the ball exceptionally well. Princeton was 25-44 on the night (56.8%), 8-17 from three (47.1%), including 5-7 in the second half and 19-24 at the line (79.2%). Harvard went 24-41 in defeat (58.5%), fired up at a 3-11 clip outside (27.3%) and were 20-27 from the free throw stripe (74.1%).
-The 77 points scored by the Tigers were a season high.
-Princeton won their fifth straight, and is on their first five game winning streak since the 2004 Ivy season. Sure there was a long exam break in the middle, but the Tigers were undefeated in January.
-This weekend's games were the first road conference wins for Princeton's junior class.
-Former Princeton player and current Celtics assistant Armond Hill was in attendance, giving Coach Johnson a hug when the two met on the steps outside the Tiger locker room.
