Strong first half run not enough for men's basketball

The men's basketball team controlled the tipoff against No. 4 Kansas last night.

The Jayhawks controlled most of the rest of the game and cruised to a 78-62 victory at Jadwin Gym.

Kansas shot a season best 52.5 percent from the field and dominated the boards to keep the Tigers from pulling off a major upset. Princeton looked bad early and fell behind by margins of 17-5 and 31-12.

Early on, the Tigers had a difficult time even getting a shot off against the Jayhawks' heavy pressure. Kansas forced a number of turnovers that ended in cheap buckets. The easy scores dug Princeton a hole and left its veteran players shaking their heads in confusion.

But the Tigers clawed back, thanks to the efforts of two young guards coming off the bench — sophomore Ed Persia and freshman Will Venable.

"It helped a lot seeing from the bench how much pressure they were putting on our guards," Persia said. "I knew that I couldn't pick up my dribble."

Persia and Venable held on to the ball and provided the spark that Princeton needed to score some points on the Jayhawks. Head coach John Thompson '88 gave Venable the green light to drive to the basket whenever he had the opportunity, and the freshman took the ball inside a number of times. He also was active on defense, nabbing three steals, and tenacious when he fought for rebounds.

If Venable brought the needed energy, Persia controlled the game's tempo and set up the Tiger offense. He intercepted a Kansas pass with three minutes, fifty-three seconds left in the first half and hit Venable for a easy layup, cutting the deficit to 12. On Princeton's next possession, he drove to the hole and kicked it out to junior Ray Robins, who hit a three-pointer from the corner.

The most exciting sequence for the vocal Tiger faithful came at the end of the half. Senior guard Ahmed El Nokali stole the ball with seven seconds left and hit Persia near half court. The sophomore looked at the clock and launched a 30-footer as time expired which found the bottom of the net, cutting the Jayhawks' lead to 35-29 and sending the crowd into a frenzy.

"I was as mad as I've been this year — maybe my life — going into halftime," Kansas coach Roy Williams said.

His anger paid dividends for the Jayhawks as they came out of the gate. Kansas held Princeton scoreless for the 5:31 of the second period and pushed its lead to 16 before Persia drained a three-pointer. The sophomore made another shot from downtown, cutting the Kansas advantage to 45-35 with 12:26 remaining, but that was as close as the Tigers managed to get.

The Jayhawks' pair of All-America forwards, Drew Gooden and Nick Collison, burned Princeton inside. Gooden owned the offensive glass, corraling six boards on his side of the floor, and scored 15 points. His counterpart, Collison, had 19 on 8-for-9 shooting.

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The Tigers had trouble containing Kansas's big men all night. Freshman center Dominick Martin got serious time — 14 minutes — to battle inside with Collison and Gooden and picked up four fouls.

Princeton tried to make up for its weaknesses inside with its rotation of freshmen and sophomores. Thompson manipulated his lineup, trying to get whoever was hot on the floor as long as possible.

Persia scored nine points and had five assists without committing a turnover. Venable had 11 points to lead the Tigers in scoring, and freshman forward Judson Wallace poured in 10 points in just 11 minutes.