Tigers sputter to defeat

For the first 25 minutes of the men's basketball team's game Sunday afternoon at Jadwin Gym, the Tigers might as well have been wearing blindfolds.

Shooting five-of-22 from the field and turning the ball over 15 times, Princeton scored just 13 points and spotted visiting Lafayette a 19-point lead.

Senior point guard Scott Greenman and sophomore forward Noah Savage combined for 27 points over the final 14 minutes, 18 seconds of play, but the Tigers (1-2 overall) sprang to life far too late to pose a serious threat to the Leopards (2-2), falling 57-46.

"Our sense of urgency was missing today. We didn't have it. Lafayette did — that's why they won the game," head coach Joe Scott '87 said. "It seemed like we weren't ready to compete. They were on their toes, we were on our heels."

Even once Princeton found its rhythm on offense in the second half, the Tigers continued struggling defensively, allowing the Leopards numerous easy looks in the paint.

Swingman Bilal Abdullah led Lafayette with 15 points and seven rebounds, and center Ted Detmer chipped in 10 points and eight boards.

The Leopards also easily outrebounded the Tigers, 32-22, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds and scoring 14 second-chance points.

"They scored their first four points off two tip-ins, where we just let guys waltz into the lane," Savage said. "Any time you start the game like that, you know you're not really ready to play." Early on, Princeton looked even worse on the offensive end of the court than the defensive end, cutting passively and shooting an anemic 28 percent. The Tigers suffered through a nine-minute scoreless stretch in the middle of the half, allowing Lafayette to take an 11-5 lead it would never relinquish.

The Leopards shot just 37 percent in the half and turned the ball over eight times but still took a 23-13 lead into halftime.

"I was surprised anybody scored in the first half," said Savage, who was held scoreless before the break. "We weren't in our offense, ever."

Princeton kept sputtering after halftime, with Lafayette scoring the first nine points of the second half to push its lead to 32-13 and prompt an increasingly distressed Scott to take a timeout at the 15:12 mark.

Freshman forward Alex Okafor hit a free throw with 14:42 left, snapping the Tigers' dry spell and sparking a 9-2 run for Princeton. Greenman hit two threes, one from the right corner in front of the Tigers' bench and another from NBA range at the top of the key.

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Savage carried Princeton's offense from there, scoring 17 of the Tigers' next 19 points with a mix of three-pointers and driving runners in the lane. His two free throws with 4:06 to play cut the Lafayette lead to single digits for the first time since the half, 47-39.

"We knew Princeton would make a run, we just had to stay poised," Leopards head coach Fran O'Hanlon said. "Against Princeton, if you're up nine and you take care of the ball and show patience, they'll have to scramble."

In Scott's mind, the Tigers' simply never should have had to scramble.

"The ball was tipped at 3:00 — that's when the sense of urgency is required, not when you get done 19," Scott said. "If we had that sense of urgency at three, we might not have been in that hole."

Ultimately, that hole would prove too deep for the Orange and Black to dig themselves out of. With junior forward Luke Owings and junior center Pat Ekeruo both playing tentatively with four fouls, the Leopards kept pounding the ball inside for easy buckets, ensuring their lead never dropped below eight.

The Tigers were also hurt by the ineffectiveness of sophomore center Harrison Schaen, who Scott played for just 11 minutes, including only three after halftime.

"You go off what you see," Scott said. "I don't see what we're looking for. I don't see the aggression, the physicality."

With Schaen struggling and Owings saddled with fouls, Ekeruo and sophomore forward Kyle Koncz both came off the bench and set career highs for minutes, playing 23 and 27, respectively.

Scott praised their performance but noted that he would prefer to be able to play Ekeruo and Koncz for only 20 minutes a game rather than have to depend on them for 30 or 35 a game.

But on this day, the Tigers' biggest problem was not who played but how they all played.

"We have to develop the understanding," Scott said, "that every time we go out on the court ... it's the most important game on our schedule."