Men's hoops eliminates Brown, Yale, takes one game lead in Ivy League race

Every time the pressure was on the men's basketball team this weekend, Princeton was able to respond.

When Yale had cut an eight-point halftime deficit to two midway through the second half, freshman Konrad Wysocki came out of a timeout, banged a three from the top of the key and Princeton regained control. The Tigers went on to win, 60-49.

It was the same story the next night at Brown. With 12 minutes, 24 seconds remaining, the Bears closed to 44-42. But Kyle Wente nailed a three-pointer, Wysocki made a layup, senior C.J. Chapman connected from behind the arc, and Princeton was up by nine. Brown would get no closer than seven in the final eight minutes, and Tigers cruised to a 64-55 victory.

"We were just fortunate that when we needed a big play, someone stepped up and made it," head coach John Thompson '88 said.

The Tiger victories, coupled with Penn's loss to Brown on Friday, once again put the Tigers alone in first place in the ancient eight standings and clinched at least a share of the Ivy League crown.

There is one more hurdle for the Tigers to clear, however. Princeton hosts Penn Tuesday night with the league's outright title and automatic berth in the NCAA tournament on the line. Should the Tigers win, they would clinch the Ivy title and a ticket to the big dance. A Quaker victory, however would mean a co-championship and a one-game playoff for the NCAA berth.

Early in the second half, Friday's contest at Yale was threatening to become something more than just an interleague battle with first place on the line. The game was threatening to become a rivalry.

All the ingredients for the making of a new rivalry were there. At certain points, the game resembled a brawl. Tempers flared, elbows flew, and though the refs handed out technical fouls in an attempt to regain control, the intense physical play did not slacken.

"They think they're better than us, they think they're tougher than us, so when we started beating them they started beating up on us," senior captain Nate Walton said.

But just as the drama heightened, Princeton began to pull away.

After Wysocki's three pointer made the score 41-36, a free throw and a layup by Neil Yanke brought the Elis back with two. With just over 10 minutes remaining, Yale was not done.

"I had told our guys that the game is going to be highs and lows and [when that happens] we just have to concentrate on how we can win the game," Thompson said. "That was the main thing two weekends ago at Cornell and Columbia. When the other team made a run at us we just had a hard time staying focused."

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Not so on Friday. After the Yanke layup, the next two and a half minutes sealed the game for the Tigers. Two steals from junior Ahmed El Nokali and two free throws and a layup from freshman Andre Logan helped counter the Eli run.

Then things went from bad to worse for Yale. Soon after Yanke went to the bench with his fourth personal foul, a three pointer from junior Mike Bechtold stretched the Tigers' lead to nine, effectively sealing the game. Yale would never come any closer than seven points the rest of the way.

"We came out and played hard tonight," Thompson said. "When we rebound and play defense, we get confidence, and we played tremendous defense tonight. It's tough playing against them."

As they have been most of the season, the Tigers were outsized by the Elis, whose starting lineup featured the 6 foot, 11 inch Yanke and 6-10 forward Tom Kritzer.

Princeton could not merely solve the problem by packing the lane and daring Yale to shoot from outside, however. Eli guard Chris Leanza leads the Ivy League in three-point field goal percentage.

"The gameplan was to spread the ball around, get everyone involved," Walton said. "They've got a big team. On our defensive end it's tough to guard them, but they've got to come down and guard Andre [Logan], and Mike [Bechtold]. We wanted to make it tough for them to chase us around."

The strategy worked. The defense caused 15 turnovers and held Leanza to five points and 1-for-4 shooting from behind the arc.

The Tiger offense was buoyed by Walton's 13 first-half points and five assists. Walton now has 101 assists for the season, making him the fourth player in school history to have two seasons of at least 100 in his career, a distinction he shares with his current coach, Armond Hill '76 and Kit Mueller '91.

Princeton's ability to counter runs was also the story at Brown on Saturday. The Bears, trailing 39-30 at halftime, opened the half with a 12-5 run to reduce the Tigers' lead to 44-42. But Princeton once again showed its ability to deal with pressure, and went on a spurt of its own to secure the win.

"The one advantage we had going into this weekend, and even going into the game against Penn, is that we've beaten all these teams," Walton said. "If we play our best we're confident we're going to win."

With the weekend sweep, the Tigers have secured at least a share of the Ivy title in Thompson's first season as head coach, as his four predecessors did in their first seasons.

Carril and Bill Carmody — also won at least a share of an Ivy League title in their first season.