Men's basketball retakes first place in Ivy League with home wins over Yale, Brown

Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.

Cliches can be annoying, but every now and then they illustrate a very important point.

This last weekend, the Tigers held two of the strongest offenses in the Ivy League to 93 points in two games.

On Saturday, Princeton dominated Brown (15-10 overall, 6-6 Ivy League) en route to a 73-47 victory.

On Friday night against then-league leading Yale (17-8, 9-2), Princeton (13-9, 8-2) put forth possibly the best defensive performance of the season on the way to a 59-46 victory. The Tigers contained the quick Eli guards and kept the ball out of the hands of Yale's big men.

During that game, the Tigers were not as successful on the offensive end of the court, but, after all, it is defense that wins the championships.

The Tiger offense did its part by improving its three-point percentage from its last competition against Yale on Feb. 9, when the team shot only 19 percent. The Tigers, however, shot just 26.7 percent.

Princeton's goal is to win the Ivy League, and to do that, the squad is probably now going to need to beat Penn. If the Tigers shoot 26.7 percent against the Quakers when the two teams play in eight days, though, Princeton is going to have difficulty in getting that championship. But one should not look that far ahead yet.

One should look at the first half of Friday night's game to discover how the Tigers managed to tear apart a team that had been playing as well as the Elis were.

The most noticeable aspect of the first half was the outstanding defensive effort from the entire Princeton squad. Yale did have a few good looks at at the basket that it missed, but most of the time, the Elis were running out of time on the clock. In the first period, Yale shot 30 percent from the field and also 14.3 percent from behind the arc.

The epitome of the Eli shooter was the team's freshman guard Edwin Draughan. He shot an airball on his first two shots and then missed the rim on his third. Maybe it was the sold-out crowd at the game yelling "airball" whenever he touched the ball that hurt his shooting, or maybe it was solid Tiger defense.

The defensive effort was led by the Tigers' four guard rotation. Senior captain Ahmed El Nokali, junior Kyle Wente, and freshman guard Will Venable each finished the game with two steals and some very solid forced turnovers. Sophomore Ed Persia had 16 points to lead Princeton.

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One of the most important plays of the game, though, was Venable's second steal at the end of the first half with the Tigers up by just five. Venable forced the turnover and went end-to-end with a layup. When Yale threw the ball back in, the Tigers used heavy pressure to cause Yale to lose the ball out of bounds with two seconds left. The Princeton inbounds pass went to senior captain Mike Bechtold, who hit a 30-footer at the buzzer to put the squad up by ten after being up by only five 18 seconds before.

The second half was more of the same, with Princeton showing the Elis that their lead in the Ivy League was merely an accident.

The Tigers also received satisfaction for another reason.

"After all we've heard about them being king and their crowd cussing at our players, it feels unbelievable that we shoved it in their face with a win," Persia said.

On Saturday night, Princeton returned to the court against Brown. After such an exciting game the night before, some of the Tiger faithful were worried that Princeton would have a rocky return to Jadwin. The return, though, was very smooth.

Brown never stood a chance against Princeton's first team, or second team, or third team. The Bears' star guard, Earl Hunt, was limited to nine points on seven shots on the evening. Brown's heralded freshman Jason Forte went 2-8 on the night.

Underneath, freshman center Dominick Martin and junior forward Ray Robins combined for six blocks and three steals.

Offensively, the Tigers shot 51 percent, including a 7-14 effort from the floor from Robins and a 6-9 effort from senior forward Mike Bechtold. Robins had the game high of 17 points, all in the first half. Few of the Tiger starters played more than five or six minutes in the second half after being up 40-22 at the break.

After the break, the Tigers cruised to a 73-47 victory. With the win, Princeton is now 9-2 in the league, half a game up on 9-3 Yale and a full game up on Penn, which is 8-3.

The Tigers next take to the court this weekend at Cornell and Columbia. With two wins, Princeton's game against Penn will probably be for the title.