Men's basketball splits two games over weekend at Sooner Invite

The men's basketball team came into this season with three major questions that needed to be answered. One, how would junior guard Spencer Gloger and junior forward Andre Logan perform from significant time off, two, how would Princeton control the middle without the presence of a true center, and lastly, how would the team incorporate all their backcourt players in the game?

Princeton (1-1 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) took a huge first step towards answering those questions as they opened their season with the Sooner Invitational at Oklahoma University this weekend.

The Tigers opened their season in grand style on Friday winning over Western Michigan, 62-59. Princeton won its season opener for the first time since 1997, when it beat Texas.

Gloger, in his first collegiate game in two years, scored a team-high 18 points, including two very important free throws with 21.9 seconds remaining to help seal the win.

Sophomore center Judson Wallace helped answer the question about Princeton's effectiveness inside. The first-year starter scored nine points, but more importantly for head coach John Thompson '88, he ripped down 14 boards and dished out six assists. He also added a block, steal, and three-pointer.

"Judson played pretty well," Thompson said. "He did a pretty good job in the post, not only collecting rebounds but getting it out on the break."

Logan and senior forward Ray Robins also scored in double figures, adding 11 and 10 points respectively.

The Tiger's opened slowly, and found themselves down 34-30 at the half after Western Michigan closed with a 14-2 run. However, the Tigers showed great resolve as they came out with a 22-4 run to open the second half. The Tiger's opened up a 52-40 lead, and then held on at the end as Western Michigan made a run to close the game.

After Gloger's two free throws put the Tigers up three, Princeton played smothering defense on the last possession and did not allow the Broncos to get off a potential game-tying shot.

With the win, Princeton earned the right to play No. 3 (Associated Press poll) Oklahoma in the championship game on Saturday afternoon. The Tiger's put up a valiant effort, but in the end, Oklahoma's superior talent won them the game, 82-63.

Sooner forward Ebe Eri led the way for the Sooners, as he scored the team's first nine points and finished with 27 points and seven rebounds.

"We played a very good team today," Thompson said. "They don't have too many weaknesses. They have an offense that can hurt you and one of the better defenses in the country. We have to play better, we have to execute better, and we will."

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The Sooners came out strong in the first half, while the Tigers came out just as flat. Once Oklahoma got adjusted to the Tiger's zone defense, they used a 15-0 first half run to propel themselves to a 44-29 halftime edge.

Robins three-pointer two minutes into the second half brought the Tigers to within 14, but that was the closest they would get in the second half.

Four Tigers scored in double figures with Logan leading way with 16 points, while Gloger added 14 points on 5-10 shooting. Sophomore guard Will Venable added 11 and Wallace finished his strong weekend with 10 more points.

"It was nice to win our first game," Logan said. "It was nice to play one of the best teams in the country today. We didn't play one of our better games, but we're not going to see too many Oklahomas down the road."

Despite the loss on Saturday, there were many bright spots from the weekend. Most importantly was the play of the frontcourt players. Wallace was superb in the first two starts of his Princeton career. He rebounded very strongly, which was the area where Thompson felt the most work needed to be done. He also added 19 points, scoring on the inside and the outside.

Logan also showed strong signs that his knee is healthy and that he is ready to pick up where he left off last season. He took 14 shots against the Sooners, and also connected on two of four 3-pointers.

Lastly, Thompson was able to use all the talented players he has in the backcourt. Gloger played as if he hadn't missed the last two years, scoring 32 points in the two games, while going 4-10 from beyond the arc.

Venable joined Gloger in the backcourt as senior captain Kyle Wente saw limited minutes because of shin splints. Junior guard Ed Persia also saw a lot of minutes off the bench.

He and Venable complimented each other nicely. Against Western Michigan, while Venable shot only 2 of 6, Persia picked his game up with eight points on 3 of 6 shooting, including two threes. The next day Venable picked up his game and poured in 11 on 5 of 8 shooting as Persia connected on only 1 of 5 shots.

While, one weekend is not going to predict how men's hoops will do this season, this certainly was a solid opening act. The Tigers started to answer many of the questions that followed them throughout the off-season.