The desire to look past Columbia and Cornell on the road, and to peer ahead to Tuesday's game against Penn, was enormous for the men's basketball team this weekend. Cornell and Columbia are hardly the cream of the crop of the Ivy League. Plus there is nothing bigger than Penn versus Princeton at the Palestra.
The Tigers (10-7 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) showed great focus and looked sharp in routing the Lions, 68-51, on Friday night and the Big Red, 67-49, on Saturday.
With the wins, Princeton joins Brown (11-9, 6-0) and Penn (12-5, 4-0) as the teams that have separated themselves in the race for the Ivy Title.
This week will serve as the measuring stick for all three teams. In addition to tomorrow night's game at Penn, Brown travels to Jadwin on Friday and the Palestra on Saturday. Yale plays at Princeton on Saturday. Either a team will establish itself as the clear favorite to win the Ivy title, or the picture will become even more muddled.
If the Tigers want to be the team that emerges from the pack, they will have to continue to make strides and improve their consistency.
Hapless Lions
Princeton showed improvement from last weekend in their offensive execution and kept up the same defensive intensity against Cornell (6-12, 2-4), something they lacked against Columbia (2-17, 0-6).
The Tigers still rolled to the easy 68-51 win because the Lions have been hapless this season. They have now lost ten straight games and are averaging less than fifty points per game.
Despite somewhat erratic play, the Tigers built an early double-digit lead and Columbia was unable to mount any sort of charge.
Born to run
The Lions tied the game at seven with three minutes, 36 seconds gone in the game. The Tigers then went on a 17-1 run to take firm control of the game. Junior forward Spencer Gloger started the streak with a jumper and added a three-point play and a putback later in the run.
Princeton played a very balanced game offensively in the first half, aggressively taking the ball to the rim when it was available. Having sophomore guard Will Venable back in the lineup added that dimension to the offense. Princeton also looked to get out and run against the Lions. Senior forward and captain Kyle Wente played the role of floor general, as he was often the outlet on the Tiger's fast breaks. Even when the Lions got back on defense, the Tigers were in good shape because the offense was set up more quickly.
Princeton played a very sloppy second half, but the Lions never mounted a serious threat. The Tigers failed to hit their first three field goals of the half until there were less than 14 minutes left in the game, yet still led by 15 points. The closest Columbia came was 54-41 with just over eight minutes left. Senior forward Ray Robins and Gloger hit back-to-back three pointers to seal the win.
Against the Big Red, the Tigers played well from start to finish. Once again, Princeton opened a large halftime lead, 36-22, and, for the second straight night, did not allow its opponent to make a serious run.
Double dunks
With Princeton up, 10-9, the Tigers ripped off 12 straight points. Later, when the lead was trimmed to 26-20, the energizer Robins slammed home a missed shot and fed junior forward Konrad Wysocki for a dunk on consecutive possessions. A steal and layup by Venable and two three's by Persia to open the second half put the game completely out of reach.
This was one of the few times this season in which the Tigers were executing well on both offense and defense. As a team, Princeton shot over 50 percent from the floor and 44 percent from beyond the arc.
On defense, Princeton was relentless. It forced 25 Big Red turnovers, 13 of those from steals. Eight Tigers had at least one steal, while Wente and sophomore forward Judson Wallace led the team wth three each. The Big Red was also limited to under forty shots.
"I feel good about our team," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "We're executing well, we're working together. A game like [last night's] earlier in the year we would have been less patient. Instead, we worked for good shots. I like the way we're playing."
Princeton needs more of the same against Penn, which struggled this weekend against the Big Red and Lions. They seemed to be looking ahead to Tuesday, something the Tigers wisely avoided.
The balance of power in the conference is up for grabs and it will be a war every step of the way. Princeton, Penn, and Brown have taken care of the bottom-dwellers, and now it's time for the game faces to come on. It's time to play some ball.
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