Cold shooting dooms Princeton to second-straight Ivy League defeat

"The game three years ago always stays in our thoughts," Penn head coach Fran Dunphy said.

He was referring to the "Palestra Miracle," a game in which Princeton came back from 24 points down at halftime to win the game, 50-49.

Last night's competition between the two teams was like that game three years ago, except without the Palestra. Or the comeback.

The Tigers were down by 22 points — 37-15 — at the half.

It was not being outrebounded that hurt Princeton. It was not going to the foul line a total of zero times in the half that hurt the squad. What destroyed the team was the absolutely horrid shooting. In the first half, the Tigers shot 6-24 from the field, and 3-10 from behind the arc.

The shooting did not get much better after that. The team finished 14-51 overall from the field (27.5 percent) and 6-23 from three-point range (26.1 percent).

At times the poor shooting was due to solid Quaker defense. For instance, on Princeton's first possession of the game, Princeton's first shot was an NBA range three pointer taken by junior forward Ray Robins just before the shot clock ended.

Most of the time, though, the Tigers were able to get a look at the basket, but could not make the shot. Even sharp-shooting sophomore Ed Persia was missing layups. Granted, he hit what was maybe Princeton's shot of the game with a Jordanesque scoop in traffic, but he was not able to finish the easy ones and went 2-7 on the evening.

"I thought that our defense gave them a few open shots," Dunphy said. "They just weren't able to make them when they had them.

When combined with Saturday night's loss to Yale, the Tigers have shot 23 percent from behind the arc and 32 percent overall.

Indeed, senior guard Ahmed El-Nokali shot 0-4 from the field last night and 0-2 from behind the arc. The captain has missed each of his last nine three pointers.

"It seemed like there was a lid on the basket for quite some time," head coach John Thompson said. "We missed layups, and when you start missing, you start thinking about it. Against a team like Penn, that can't happen because they have too many weapons."

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

"I don't think it was their defense," freshman guard Will Venable said. "We got the shots. We just didn't hit them."

For the Tigers, the only player making shots this evening was the freshman Venable, who hit 3-5 from three-point range, but only 4-12 overall.

While Princeton was shooting poorly last night, Penn was on fire. Andrew Toole shot 4-9 from behind the arc, and Koko Archibong shot 5-6 overall, ending up with 17 points after being sent to the line 7 times.

If the Tigers continue to shoot like it has in the last two games, the title will be well out of reach after the next few games.