Ugly loss to Yale ends m. hoops' season

PHILADELPHIA — The men's basketball team went into the first leg of the Ivy playoffs against Yale knowing that it needed to break out of its shooting slump to advance to the finals. The team did not break out of that slump and lost to the Elis by a final of 76-60.

The game was marked by poor Tiger shooting and rebounding, compared with solid shooting and rebounding by Yale.

"They were getting the rebounds and we weren't," junior forward Ray Robins said. "That's how they were able to go on their scoring runs."

On the boards, Yale outrebounded Princeton 40-28. The first half numbers were even more disparate, 22 boards for Yale compared to six for the Tigers.

As far as scoring is concerned, Princeton's first half against Yale and Tuesday's first half against Penn had a number of things in common. Like on Tuesday, both teams started off slowly. Princeton's first basket last night did not come until two minutes, 22 seconds into the game. Also similar to Tuesday, Princeton's opponent last night took a commanding lead after the initial lull and never looked back.

Besides rebounding, another key Yale's first half success was shooting 13-24 from the field (54 percent) and 50 percent from behind the arc (2-4).

The Tigers, on the other hand continued their shooting woes from last Tuesday, making a mere 35 percent from the field and 3-12 from behind the arc.

Yale started off the first-half scoring with a T.J. McHugh jumper, his first two points of a career-high 21. Princeton's first basket did not come until two minutes, 22 seconds into the game on a 10 footer from senior forward Mike Bechtold. To create some scores, the team tried to isolate 6'7" junior forward Ray Robins when being marked by the much shorter Alex Gamboa. The plan did not work as the team would have hoped, and Robins was unable to make either of his two shots.

The teams went back and forth on the scoreboard until El Nokali hit a 25-footer to make it 8-7 with 15:20 left in the half.

The Tigers then made their customary five-minute substitution by bringing sophomore center Konrad Wysocki in for freshman Dominick martin. Head coach John Thompson '88 also brought in Ed Persia for Robins.

On Persia's first trip down the floor, he ran a backdoor pass play, but Wysocki travelled on the delivery of what would have otherwise been two points.

On the next attempt for a backdoor pass, Persia hit a breaking Bechtold to make the score 12-9 in favor of the Tigers with 12:20 left to play.

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The next couple of plays at Princeton's end demonstrated the good and bad of the Tiger defense, a defense that played well at times, but poorly for most of the game. On the first, Yale's Draughan missed a 15 foot shot, but was not boxed out and, subsequently, got the rebound and the easy layup. The Elis' next trip down was a semi-fast break, one in which only Persia got back in time to stop the breaking Draughan. The Eli guard went in hard on Persia who stood his ground and drew the charge on the play.

The Tigers had a couple of baskets by Wysocki and Bechtold, but Yale responded and went on a nine-point run to go up 23-17 with 5:24 left in the half before Princeton called a timeout.

In the last few games, Princeton has stormed out of timeouts to go on runs of its own.

Such was not the case last night, and, the run did not take place, at least not for the Tigers. Instead, Yale scored 10 of the game's next 12 points to build a lead that would not be threatened again.

Princeton scored first after the timeout, but Yale started started its run when Ime Archibong got the ball down low to put the Elis up by six, 25-19, once again. Princeton turned the ball over on its next possession and then Paul Vitelli scored on a two-point play and then a deep three pointer while being fouled by Persia to build up a 12 point 31-19 lead.

A media timeout with 3:42 left in the half stopped some of the bleeding. On Princeton's next possession, got a clean look at the basket with a Bechtold three, but it didn't fall.

Yale got the rebound and on its next trip down the floor, the Tiger guards knocked the ball loose, but Wysocki was called for pushing Yale's Josh Hill while going after the loose ball. Being at the penalty limit, Hill went to the line and hit both shots of his one and one.

Each team scored a few more points in the last three minutes of the half, and Yale went into the locker room with a comfortable 12-point 37-25 lead.

The second half started with yet another Yale run, as the Elis scored on four of their first five possessions. The Tigers countered with clutch shots from El Nokali and Martin, but 4:17 into the half, the score was 48-30 in favor of the Elis.

In such a huge hole, though, something happened to the Tigers. The team started working hard off the ball on offense. It started playing solid defense, got some rebounds, and finally scored on several back to back possessions. Before Yale noticed what had happened, Princeton cut the lead from 18 to nine points with 11:30 to play.

Yale's head coach James Jones then called a timeout of his own. It worked, and Yale answered the Tiger run by rebuilding the score to 54-40 with 10 minutes left.

Down by 14, Princeton's shooting was not helping a potential comeback take place. A few missed open shots and Martin's two missed foul shots at the line hurt any chance for the Tigers. With six minutes left in the game, Princeton was still down by thirteen and was forced to play aggressive on the press while bringing in its five best three-point shooters.

The needed tactic did not worked as hoped, though, and the Tigers fell farther and farther behind towards the end, putting up desperate shots that missed by more and more as the game came closer and closer to a end.

The Elis finished off the game and the Princeton Ivy season, with a 76-60 victory.

The Tigers recognize Yale and Penn's superiority this week, but not the season.

"We're better than Yale, better than Penn," Persia said. "We just didn't show it this week. They're a pretty athletic team but, I hate to say this, they may have wanted it more."