Noah arcs in 35 in OT home loss

Despite Savage pouring in the highest point total by a Princeton player since Kevin Mullin ’84 dropped 38 points on San Diego in the 1984 NCAA Tournament, the Tigers (5-17 overall, 2-5 Ivy League) succumbed to Brown (14-8, 6-2) in overtime Saturday night, 65-63. The loss was the second of Princeton’s weekend homestand, coming on the heels of a 67-56 toppling by Yale (10-12, 4-4) on Friday.

Princeton had the lead at halftime in both games, but the Tigers’ inability to hold on in either contest extended their Ivy League losing streak to five games after a 2-0 start to the conference season. Halfway through league play, having faced each Ancient Eight opponent once, Princeton sits fifth in the Ivy standings.

“We came up short,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said, “and it’s tremendously disappointing.”

Every Ivy loss this season has seen the Tigers either ahead or within striking distance during the game’s final minutes, and Friday’s showdown with the Bulldogs was no exception. Princeton and Yale went back and forth from the opening tip, with the Bulldogs matching their largest lead of the half on a pair of Ross Morin free throws with 11 minutes, 36 seconds remaining.

With Yale up 13-9, the Tigers embarked on a 15-0 run, holding the Bulldogs scoreless for almost seven minutes. Seven different Princeton players scored during the stretch, with a balanced offensive attack backed by strong rebounding and effective perimeter defense. Yale shot just one-for-eight from three-point range during the first half, including five long-range misses during the Tiger run.

Princeton’s scoring blitz finally came to an end when things got chippy with 4:39 to play in the first half, seeming to awaken the Bulldogs. As sophomore guard Marcus Schroeder pushed the ball up court following a defensive rebound, senior forward and co-captain Kyle Koncz and Yale’s Nick Holmes got tangled up underneath the Princeton basket, with Holmes clotheslining Koncz and heaving him to the floor. The referees whistled Holmes for an intentional foul and moved in to separate the players, but as order was being restored, Schroeder dashed back onto the scene with some choice words and a little contact for Bulldog Matt Kyle and was immediately called for a technical by the officials.

Koncz knocked down the pair of free throws resulting from the intentional foul, putting the Tigers up 24-13, their largest lead of the night. But Yale’s Eric Flato converted on one of two technical free throws to set off a 13-3 Yale run to close out the half and narrow Princeton’s lead to 27-26 going into the locker rooms.

The Bulldogs went ahead on a Kyle layup on the first basket after halftime, but the Tigers quickly regained control and continued to hold off the Bulldogs for much of the second stanza. A three-pointer by Savage with 7:14 to go in the game put Princeton up 50-45.

At that point, though, the Tigers went cold, turning the ball over on consecutive possessions to set off a crucial scoreless stretch that lasted nearly six minutes. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, banged consecutive three-pointers, opening a 14-0 run that put Yale in control of the game, up 59-50 with just 1:34 remaining.

The Bulldogs — who attempted 33 free throws next to the Tigers’ 13 — connected on six-straight trips to the charity stripe to close the game out, handing Princeton an abrupt double-digit loss in a contest the Tigers seemed to be controlling.

The story was much the same Saturday night, as an unstoppable Savage looked ready to carry Princeton to a big, bounce-back win over Brown, the second-place team in the Ivy League. With 3:19 to play in the first half, Savage had scored just three points, and the Tigers were clinging to an 18-17 lead. But Savage rattled off seven-straight Princeton points to close out the half, paving the way for his utterly explosive night and putting the Tigers up 25-21 at the midway point.

Savage’s offensive outburst was all the more timely because it came on a night when Johnson decided to replace sophomore guard and second-leading scorer Lincoln Gunn in the Princeton starting lineup with junior guard Jason Briggs, a defensive stopper.

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“I wanted Jason to give us a little bit of a spark,” Johnson said. “We’re on a losing streak, and we’re trying to fix it. We’re trying to max out our roster. It’s not a position we wanted to be in now, in Ivy League play.”

Gunn ended up playing 35 minutes off the bench, matching a career high with seven assists and providing impassioned defense. But Savage was the unquestioned star of the night, draining a three-pointer with 8:42 to go to give Princeton a 10-point lead — its largest of the night — at 49-39.

“That kid had a terrific game,” Brown head coach and former Tiger star Craig Robinson ’83 said of Savage. “That’s one of those career games that can just knock you for a loop.”

But the Bears were unfazed and slowly began to eat away at their deficit, cutting the score to 53-52 with 2:48 remaining. Like Yale, Brown pounded Princeton at the free-throw line, going 26-for-34 to the Tigers’ eight-for-13. Savage headed to the line twice in the final two minutes with a chance to extend the Tiger lead but hit just two of four free throws to leave the door open.

Brown captain Damon Huffman cut in for an uncontested layup with 20 seconds remaining to give the Bears their first lead of the second half at 57-56. After Savage drained a huge three-pointer from the top of the arc on the ensuing Princeton possession to put the Tigers back up by two, Huffman drew contact on a driving layup attempt with four seconds left, then coolly stepped to the line for two free throws to tie the game back up at 59.

“The difference in the game is, down the stretch, their captain was tough enough to make his free throws, and I wasn’t,” Savage said.

Senior guard Kevin Steuerer drew iron on an off-balance, but open, runner at the regulation buzzer, and the two teams headed into overtime.

The Bears and Tigers traded two-point leads in the extra period, with Savage draining a jumper to tie the game at 63 with 1:05 to play. On Brown’s next possession, Adrian Williams hit a pair of free throws to put Brown back on top, and Savage couldn’t connect on a step-back three on the other end. Huffman missed two foul shots with 17 seconds remaining to give Princeton one last chance, but Schroeder was off on a good look at a deep three that would have won the game at the buzzer.

Though Savage finished 11-of-17 from the field and seven-of-nine from beyond the three-point arc in scoring 35 of the Tigers’ 63 points, his personal highlights weren’t on his mind after yet another fall-from-ahead defeat.

“Just the same as any other loss,” Savage said. “That’s how I look at it.”

Perhaps that’s the most disconcerting thing about the Tigers’ recent stretch of letdowns. Even on a night when one of their captains goes for 35, all the losses are starting to look identical.