M. Hoops opens league play with two wins

PROVIDENCE, R.I./NEW HAVEN, C.T. — After scoring 18 points to lead the men's basketball team to an impressive 64-49 win at Brown on Friday night, junior guard Will Venable did not attempt a single field goal for the first 39 minutes and 57 seconds of Saturday's game.

But with three seconds left, and the Tigers trailing Yale by one, Venable slipped underneath the basket, grabbed a tipped offensive rebound in tight traffic, and calmly laid the ball in.

Thanks to Venable's offensive heroics and his suffocating defense, Princeton (9-6 Overall, 2-0 Ivy League) escaped New Haven with a sweep of its first – and perhaps toughest – league road weekend.

The Tigers' performance against Brown (7-10, 3-1) was perhaps their best all-around showing of the season. Princeton never trailed in the game, opening a 20-9 lead midway through the first half and never allowing the Bears to get closer than the five points.

Princeton lit up the scoreboard with a balanced combination of hot long-range shooting and well-timed backdoor cuts, despite the fact that junior center Judson Wallace played only 10 minutes due to foul trouble, scoring just 2 points. Meanwhile, Brown's offense sputtered in the face of Princeton's tight defense. The Bears – who live and die with perimeter shooting – shot just 37 % for the game, including one of ten shooting from beyond the arc.

The Tigers' defensive game plan revolved around forcing someone other than star point guard Jason Forte to beat them. Forte scored 18, but, due to Princeton's refusal to double-team him, tallied just one assist. Venable and Persia held sharpshooting guards Patrick Powers and Mike Martin to one and two points, respectively.

"Jason is so good and so fast that it almost doesn't matter who you put on him, he's going to get his points," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "So we wanted to just contain the other guys."

The Tigers led 30-21 at the break and extended the gap to 12 when Persia, who had earlier taken a painful knee to the thigh, drilled a three to open the second half.

Brown cut the lead to eight and appeared to have a chance to get back in the game when Wallace was whistled for his third personal foul and received a technical for swinging his elbow at a Brown player with 17:06 remaining. But rather than seize the momentum, the Bears let their emotions get the best of them. First, Forte earned a technical for taunting Wallace, and then coach Glen Miller earned one with a hysterical fit.

The theatrics briefly reenergized the boisterous Brown fans, but back-to-back threes with the shot clock winding down stretched the Tiger lead to 13 and quieted the crowd. Princeton stretched its lead to 20 at the five-minute mark with a 7-0 run spurred by three straight steals and coasted the rest of the way home.

Against Yale (6-11, 1-3) the following night, there would be no such lack of suspense. Princeton briefly opened a 20-12 on four of five shooting from three-point range, but the Bulldogs closed the gap to 22-21 at the half.

The second half would see 10 lead changes as the teams slowly traded points. Junior forward Andre Logan scored nine of the Tigers' first 11 after the break, as Princeton repeatedly worked the ball to him in the post. Meanwhile, most of Yale's offense came from the free throw line – the Bulldogs went to the charity stripe 22 times in the half.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

With the scored knotted at 40 with five minutes left, Yale pulled ahead by four points thanks to a three-pointer and two Tiger turnovers. Two free throws and a hook shot by junior center Mike Stephens closed it to one with 45 seconds remaining.

After the Bulldogs ran the clock down to 15 seconds, Edwin Draughan missed a jumper and Venable grabbed his eighth rebound to give Princeton one final chance. Venable held Draughn, Yale's leading scorer, to just nine points.

Rather than call a timeout, Princeton pushed the ball up the court, producing an open 10-footer for Logan with eight seconds left.

"In a scramble situation like that, I think its better to push it and see what's there," Thompson said. "It's one of those situations where I trust our guys, I trust their instincts."

Logan's shot fell short, and several players bobbled the ball before it ended up in Venable's hands. Venable was fouled on the putback – he sank the free throw to put the Tigers up 49-47.

Yale had one final chance to win it, but Alex Gamboa's desperation attempt from 30 feet banked off the glass and rimmed out.