M. hoops beats Fresno St. with 26 points from Wallace

Not since Gabe Lewullis '99 and Brian Earl '99 has men's basketball had goto guys that can compare to junior center Judson Wallace.

Wallace showed once again this weekend that he is ready to take on the responsibility of leading the Tigers, pushing Princeton (4-1 overall) to a split in California.

On Friday night the Tigers fell to University of California-Irvine, 57-55, but rebounded on Saturday to earn a 72-67 win over host Fresno St. at the McCaffrey Classic.

As Wallace goes, so do the Tigers. On Friday night, the junior out of Atlanta, Ga. scored only 13 points on four-of-eight shooting.

As a team, Princeton shot under 50 percent from the field for the first time, connecting on 19 of 43 shot attempts. The Tigers' free throw shooting was especially abysmal as they hit only six of 13 attempts from the charity stripe.

Despite their shooting woes, Princeton was in it until the end. With 1.8 seconds left on the clock, the Anteaters' seven-foot center Adam Parada hit two free throws to give UC-Irvine its two-point edge. Wallace traveled near midcourt in his attempt to get off a last-second miracle shot to win the game.

Parada had earlier missed two free throws with 49 seconds left in the game and the score knotted at 55.

Princeton was down, 52-48, with three minutes to go when sophomore guard Scott Greenman hit a three to bring Princeton within one. Later, Wallace tied the game with two free throws with 68 ticks left.

After the misses by Parada, Greenman had an open look from the right corner but the ball bounced off the front of the rim. It was Greenman's only miss on the day as he finished with 14 points — a career high — on five-of-six shooting overall and four-of-five from beyond the arc.

Princeton looked to be on its way to victory after a layup by freshman forward Luke Owings gave the Tigers a 43-35 lead with 11 minutes to play. The Anteaters responded with an 11-0 run to take a three-point lead, which was quickly overcome by Greenman's three.

The Tigers trailed at halftime, 27-26.

Wallace and the rest of the team returned to form on Saturday night against Fresno St. Both teams shot the ball extremely well, but Princeton was 11-22 from three-point land while the Bulldogs were only four of 13 from downtown.

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Once again the outcome of the game was not decided until the closing seconds. Princeton led 70-67 with 10 seconds left in the game and was inbounding the ball underneath the Bulldogs' basket. However, Greenman was called for an offensive foul as he attempted to push off his man. Yet Greenman, the smallest man on the floor at five feet nine inches tall, came up with the rebound on Marcus West's missed three-pointer with six seconds left. He then sank two free throws to ice the win.

The Bulldogs were led by Renaldo Major, who scored 20 points and was followed closely by Shantay Legans with 18 points and seven assists.

Speaking of assists, junior forward Will Venable had nine assists and 10 points for Princeton. The junior continues to contribute a solid all around game for the Tigers also chipping in with four boards and three steals.

Princeton was up 56 to 54 with 10:37 left, and a 9-2 run over the next five minutes propelled the Tigers to victory. Again it was Wallace who led the way, as he scored all nine points in the Princeton run on a three-point basket, two layups and a couple of free throws.

As Wallace went, so did the Tigers. He finished with 26 points on nine-of-15 shooting, including four of six from three. He improved his team leading scoring average to 22.8 points per game, good for eighth in the nation.

Two of his 26 came with 20 seconds left in the game and the Tigers up 68-65. Wallace had the ball on the blocks, backed down his defender and with the shot clock running down hit a jump hook that bounced off both the front of the rim and the back of the rim.

"I love having the ball in those situations, and my teammates look for me to make a play near the end of the shot clock," Wallace said.