Taking care of business: Men's hoops cruises past Cornell, Columbia to start Ivy slate

Surprises have been a large part of the men's basketball team's season thus far. But in its Ivy League opening weekend at Jadwin Gym, the Tigers showed that little has changed in the league hierarchy.

Playing their final two games with Bill Clinton in the White House, the Tigers ended the term doing exactly what they had been doing for most of it — winning. Freshman guard Ed Persia scored 12 of his career-high 17 points in the first half as Princeton defeated Cornell, 78-53, on Friday night. He was backed up by 16 points from freshman forward Konrad Wysocki.

The next night — not to be outdone — senior guard C.J. Chapman scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half, and sophomore guard Kyle Wente and senior center Nate Walton added 11 points each as Princeton downed Columbia, 53-36.

Just as it has quite often in recent years, the Cornell-Columbia weekend treated Princeton well. It was the Tiger's 15th straight win over both teams.

If this was the season other Ivy League teams were going to change the usual order of the league and make a run at Princeton and Penn, then they must be waiting to make their move. After the first weekend of league play, Princeton and Penn sit atop the league at 2-0, joined only by Yale.

As it has been for much of the season, different nights yielded completely different sets of scoring leaders. While the seniors took care of Saturday, on Friday it was the freshmen.

"It's not strange to me," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "I think we have different guys who can put points on the board. We have a fairly good offensive team and, on any given night, I expect different guys to step up. It's not going to be the same guys every night."

For a while Friday, it looked as if the Tigers were feeling the ill-effects of the further alterations to their team. Just over five minutes into the game, a layup by Jake Rohe gave the Big Red a 13-8 lead over a depleted Tiger team. Senior C.J. Chapman did not start because of an ankle injury, and was replaced by Persia. Freshman Andre Logan got just his second start of the season because of junior Mike Bechtold's nagging foot injury.

Sophomore Kyle Wente made his first career start, replacing junior forward Eugene Baah, who has left the team for personal reasons. Chris Krug, who took a leave of absence from the team in the preseason, has decided not to return.

Perhaps it was its frustration over a disappointing 4-7 non-conference record, but Princeton allowed only two more Cornell field goals in the remaining 14 minutes of the half after Rohe's layup. Persia's third three-pointer of the half tied the score at 13-13 with 13:02 remaining, and Walton's layup gave the Tigers the lead for good a minute later.

For the Tigers, the fun was just beginning. Wysocki's alley-oop layup from Chapman — who went 3-for-4 from behind the arc despite his ankle — gave the Tigers a 24-16 lead with 7:24 left and ignited a devastating 18-0 run.

When Persia's fourth three-pointer made the score 40-16 with 3:09 remaining in the half, Princeton had completed a 32-3 run and proved that though the names in the box score may have changed, Princeton basketball is still the same.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Normalcy returned in a big way Saturday, as Princeton defeated Columbia with a traditional formula— defense and three-pointers. The Tigers held the Lions, who shot just over 30 percent from the floor in the game, to their lowest point total since a 56-33 Tiger win in Feb., 1991.

Princeton's offense struggled in the early part of the game. The Tigers did not break into double-digits until Chapman's second three pointer just over eight minutes into the game.

But if the Tigers were slow, the Lions were stationary. Craig Austin, Columbia's lone scoring threat on the night, scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the first half, but no other Columbia player added more than two points in the first half.

"They have a good offense," Thompson said. "I didn't want them to come down, set up and run their plays. We wanted to break their rhythm a bit."

In that slow first period, Princeton's offense was dominated by seniors. Chapman, who on the weekend shot 8-for-11 from three-point range, hit four of his five three-pointers in the half while Walton dished out six of his seven assists. With seven seconds remaining in the first half, his over-the-shoulder pass from the baseline found an open Wysocki cutting down the lane. Wysocki's layup gave the Tigers a 28-17 lead.

"When you play a team like Columbia, there are no secrets," Thompson said. "They know what we're going to do, we know what they're going to do. It comes down to players making plays."

Walton opened the scoring in the second half with a three, and the Tigers' defense got stingier to ensure that the game was never in doubt.

Hardly ever in doubt. A three-pointer from Derrick Mayo cut Princeton's lead to 40-30 with 7:47 remaining. But to complete a comeback, a team has to score points, and Columbia could only manage six more. Six minutes later, Chapman's final three pointer, on Walton's final assist, stretched the lead back to 18. Princeton's injuries now have even more time to heal. The Tigers have another 16-day layoff before hosting The College of New Jersey on Jan. 29.

On Feb. 2, they return to league action against Brown, a team they have beaten all 50 times they have played in Princeton, NJ.