Tradition haunted the men's basketball team when it traveled to California to compete in the Black Coaches Association Classic this weekend. The Tigers fell to both California and St. Joe's, starting off their season 0-2 for the third straight year in a weekend that the Tigers hoped would end with a little more success — specifically, a championship.
Princeton opened up its regular season against Cal Thursday night with an effort that turned out to be too little, too late. Cal capitalized on the Tigers slow start by racking up a halftime lead that Shantay Legans stretched to 44-28 by hitting a half-court shot at the buzzer. Riding that momentum, the Golden Bears rocketed into the second half with a 15-6 run to gain a 16 point lead over the Tigers, 50-34.
Princeton answered with an 18-6 run at the end of the game, but it was only enough to close up the gap of what was still a 12-point loss to the Golden Bears, 70-58. Sophomore forward Konrad Wysocki led the Tiger offense with 17 points and senior forward Mike Bechtold contributed 11 points. Overall, Princeton shot 57 percent from the field, though the offensive impact was lessened by the 24 turnovers the team committed.
"We had way too many turnovers," Wysocki said. "That is just not acceptable at all and that is what cost us the game."
"We need to work on our defense," senior forward Conor Neu said. "Our offense was working fine, we were getting open shots. We just need to make a few more and we need to be able to stop the team defensively. We gave them too many easy layups and they were getting the ball inside too easily."
The two teams have split their last two meetings, with Cal most recently beating the Tigers in the 1997 NCAA openening round, 55-52. Cal went on to the championship of the BCA tournament, beating Eastern Washington in the final, 56-27.
The same problems plagued Princeton in its consolation game against No. 9 St. Joe's. The Hawks, who reached the Sweet 16 last year, were upset in the first round by Eastern Michigan, 68-67.
The Tigers were able to keep the score tight through the majority of the game, knotting the score at 31-31 at halftime. The teams continued to trade baskets after the half, reaching a 42-42 tie before St. Joe's took off on a nine-point run that left the Tigers unable to recover. St. Joe's closed the game at 74-63.
The Tiger offense was led by sophomore forward Andre Logan, who had 13 points, Wysocki, who chipped in 11 points and seven assists, and junior guard Kyle Wente, who also had 11 points for Princeton. All of the Hawks' starting five ended the game in double figures.
"They just started hitting shots," Wysocki said of the Hawks' nine-point run. "Their frontcourt is known for being very strong and they have some very good point guards that can make decisions and get their teammates to make plays for them. They just run and then dish [the ball] off. It was just a tough break at a tough time. We had them most of the game and then they had their run and it seemed like it was all over. We had too many easy mistakes."
The weekend overall was a disappointment for Princeton, who had hoped to win the tournament.
"We thought we had a chance to go out there and win both of those games," Neu said. "We put out an alright effort, but we have a lot of work to do to get better."
"I think we could have won both," Wysocki said. "It is hard to say where we're lacking. I guess we just didn't play hard enough. This isn't what we wanted to do, to start the season 0-2, but things can only get better from here."
The Tigers will be back in action on Nov. 24 at Florida International and have their first home game Nov. 28 against Rider.
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