Considering who was sitting in the stands Saturday night, all the backdoor cuts, the fluid passes and the three-point baskets were especially appropriate in the men's basketball team's home victory over Dartmouth.
In front of 74 former Princeton basketball players and coaches, the Tigers (13-10 overall, 8-3 Ivy League) completed a weekend sweep, finishing off the Big Green (7-18, 2-10), 68-52, Saturday and putting away Harvard (12-12, 5-7), 62-48, Friday. With their two wins on the weekend, the Tigers remained tied with Penn atop the league.
With the former greats at the Dartmouth game for the 100 years of Princeton basketball celebration, the Tigers clamped down on the Big Green offense, holding Dartmouth to just 38 percent shooting from the field.
Princeton shot 11-for-20 from the field against the Big Green in the first half, with seven of those baskets coming from behind the three-point arc. The hot shooting gave Princeton an 11-point halftime lead.
The Tigers got good looks from three-point land, with senior center Nate Walton — who led the Tigers with 18 points — setting screens, and players driving to the basket before kicking the ball back out to the perimeter.
Junior forward Mike Bechtold shot the ball four times in the first half and made all four attempts, contributing 13 points in just 14 minutes of play. Less than a minute after subbing into the game in the first half, the junior stepped up and hit a long three from the top of the key. Bechtold made the next basket for the Tigers off of one of Walton's five assists on the day. Walton stood at the top of the key, faked a three to get by Dartmouth's Ian McGinnis and then hit the running Bechtold with a backdoor pass for the layup.
Walton and Bechtold later connected again when they wowed the crowd with one minute, 18 seconds to play in the first half. In the paint and surrounded by Big Green defenders, Walton sent a no-look behind-the-back pass to Bechtold for another layup.
"That was a great pass," Bechtold said. "I didn't expect it coming. Coach teaches us to cut through and stay with our cuts, and I just happened to be underneath. The ball just popped into my hands."
The Tigers kept their double-digit lead throughout the second half en route to their 47th straight home league win against a team other than Penn.
The night before, Princeton outplayed Harvard for almost the entire game. The Tigers struggled in the first half to get shots to fall, but their hard work on the court negated their weak 40 percent shooting. Princeton's offense managed to get off 30 shots in the first half, while limiting the Crimson to only 18. Hustle and defense, not to mention junior guard Ahmed El Nokali's career-high 23 points, stifled Harvard's chances for mounting a charge.
"We were victimized by excellent Princeton defense," Harvard head coach Frank Sullivan said.
The Tigers benefitted from 19 Crimson turnovers and 13 Princeton steals. Freshman guard Ed Persia set the tone for the type of game the Tigers were going to play in the first half when he chased down a loose ball that was bouncing toward the sidelines, got horizontal in his dive and managed to knock the ball back to Walton.
The high energy continued into the second half for the Tigers. After the Crimson climbed back from seven points down to tie the game at 35, the Tigers went on a decisive 20-4 run that took the game away from Harvard's reach.
"[Freshman forward] Konrad [Wysocki] and Eddie [Persia] gave us a lot of energy tonight," Thompson said after the Harvard game. "They've got young legs while a lot of our guys have old legs."
Walton used his experienced legs to lead the team with 12 rebounds and seven assists. The entire team was very giving, with the Tigers assisting on 19-of-23 baskets.
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