Princeton stumbles to first ever 0-4 Ivy start

After another winless Ivy League weekend, the men's basketball team can no longer point fingers at anyone else for its last-place league standing.

Princeton (9-9 overall, 0-4 Ivy League) first hit the road on the Monday of Intersession to take on non-conference opponent Seton Hall (12-9) at Continental Airlines Arena. The devastating 79-41 defeat was the Tigers' worst since a 77-34 loss to Cornell in 1946, and not even the team's two-week layoff for final exams could explain its woes on both sides of the ball.

Princeton's luck did not improve over the past weekend, when the team visited Yale and Brown for its second pair of Ivy League games. Against the Bulldogs on Friday, the Orange and Black mustered a solid first-half showing before allowing Yale to escape with a 43-35 win.

A similar situation unfolded Saturday night against the Bears, when the Tigers lost a battle for last place by a score of 63-48. Princeton's fifth consecutive loss, the game was again marked by a competitive first half, followed by the Tigers crumpling over the final 20 minutes.

When they faced the Bulldogs, the Tigers led 24-22 at the half. Coming out of the locker room, the Tigers could not buy a basket, going one-for-15 from the floor to open the second stanza.

Still, with two minutes, 55 seconds left in the game, freshman point guard Marcus Schroeder drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 35. But following a quick turnaround bank shot by Yale's Travis Pinick on the very next Bulldog possession, the Tigers fell silent. Princeton had a number of open looks, but frustratingly for the Tigers, none of those shots fell in.

Princeton ran its offense much more effectively against the Bulldogs than it had against Seton Hall earlier in the week, but good possessions did not translate into points. The Tigers' 27 percent clip shooting from the field was their lowest mark of the year. Junior forward Kyle Koncz, who returned for the Yale game from a foot injury that had kept him out against the Pirates, led Princeton with nine points off the bench.

Against the Bears, the Orange and Black came out strong to take a quick seven-point lead. Behind senior forward Luke Owings' team-high 12 points and freshman point guard Marcus Schroeder's season-high 10 points, Princeton largely controlled the pace of the game in the early going.

In an instance of deja vu, however, the Tigers allowed Brown to go on a dominant run to tie the game. Moments before the first-half buzzer sounded, Princeton went up again, 23-22, on a banked-in three-pointer by freshman shooting guard Lincoln Gunn from just a step past mid-court. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the dose of momentum that carried them into the locker room did not follow them back onto the court, as the Bears grabbed the first eight points of the second period and the Orange and Black offered no response.

On a few occasions during the second half, Princeton rallied to cut the Brown lead, once pulling to within two points on another clutch Schroeder trey.

It was the Tigers' inability to stop Brown's Mark McAndrew that ultimately led to their defeat. McAndrew, who has been the Bears' top scorer this year, led all players with 19 points. His sharp three-point shooting in the second half helped wedge a gap in the score that Princeton was unable to overcome.

Though the pair of Ivy losses dropped the Tigers to 0-4 in league play for the first time in the history of the Ancient Eight, the weekend was nothing compared to Princeton's pillaging at the hands of the Seton Hall Pirates earlier in the week.

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The Tigers opened up against their in-state, Big East rival in promising fashion, pulling to within one point of Seton Hall four minutes into the game on a layup by Owings. The Pirates countered with a quick seven-point run to take an eight-point lead, but the Tigers showed signs of life once again on a powerful inside basket by freshman center Zach Finley. Finley was coming off a season-best performance against Cornell in which he scored 12 for the Tigers.

The Pirates soon stopped trading baskets, however, and ravaged Princeton with a devastating 21-6 run over the next seven minutes to open up a gap the Tigers failed to bridge.

At halftime Princeton trailed 46-23, but following a run in which The Hall netted 12 straight points in a three-minute span, the Tigers were behind, 58-23. While the Princeton defense failed to perform, it was the team's offense that really struggled against the Pirates. Seton Hall played with a stifling pressure defense that ultimately forced 17 Tiger turnovers. Princeton was frequently trapped by the tight defense and was unable to effectively run its offense.

The Pirates did not give Princeton many clear looks at the basket either, as the Tigers shot only 36 percent from the field and hit just three of their 18 three-point attempts. Junior forward Noah Savage led Princeton with 10 points, while Schroeder contributed eight.

The absence of Koncz, who watched the game from the bench in street clothes, hobbled by a foot injury, certainly didn't help the Tigers. Koncz is Princeton's leading scorer and only consistent three-point threat, but while his absence could excuse his teammates' lack of offensive spark, it could not explain their utter inability to compete with Seton Hall on either side of the floor.

The Tigers have shown they can hang with their competition over stretches, but to regain respectability in the league, they need to finish off the whole 40 minutes of play. All but out of the Ivy race, respect may be all Princeton has left to play for.