Princeton Men's Basketball perfect in Ivy play

For a program that hasn’t always had the best luck with tune-up games, the men’s basketball team sure made the most of its Jan. 27 clash with Division II Dominican.

Coming off a 17-day exam break, the Tigers (5-12 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) put an end to their school-record 12-game losing streak with a 60-46 defeat of the overmatched Chargers (10-11), then parlayed the momentum from their easy victory into a pair of impressive wins over Dartmouth (8-10, 1-3) and Harvard (6-14, 1-3) this past weekend for a surprising 2-0 start in the Ivy League.

Led by back-to-back 17-point efforts from sharpshooting sophomore guard Lincoln Gunn, Princeton held off the Big Green by a 57-53 tally Friday night before running past the Crimson for a 68-54 win Saturday. The trio of Intersession home triumphs improved the Tigers’ home record to 5-3, while the perfect conference record puts Princeton atop the Ivies alongside fellow league unbeatens Cornell and Penn.

“These men really stepped up,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said Saturday after his team’s third-straight win. “We really, really have worked very hard to get where we are. These guys are making plays and playing basketball.”

Should the Tigers continue to improve and vie seriously for an Ancient Eight title, the restoration of their winning ways will be traced back to their morale-boosting romp of Dominican. The win represented a major turn in Princeton’s recent tune-up-game history, coming just one day shy of the two-year anniversary of the Tigers’ embarrassing 51-46 home loss to Division III Carnegie Mellon. Last season’s return from exam break was no rosier, as the Tigers sustained a 79-41 dismantling at the hands of Big East foe Seton Hall at the Meadowlands.

But first-year head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 made sure Princeton was ready coming into this year’s showdown with the Chargers, and though a reasonable amount of rust was evident, the Tigers proved efficient enough to ease by Dominican for their first win since Nov. 14 against Iona.

The two teams were tied at 15 after just under nine minutes of play before consecutive three-pointers by Gunn propelled Princeton on a 24-6 run to close out the first half. The Tigers shot 60 percent from the floor over the first 20 minutes of play, jumping out to a 39-21 halftime lead that allowed Johnson to test some of his bench players over the course of the second stanza.

Play turned a bit sloppy after intermission, but the game’s final minutes featured a surplus of Princeton highlight-reel material, including a pair of breakaway dunks by sophomore center Zach Finley and senior forward and co-captain Noah Savage.

With five minutes, 11 seconds left in the game, freshman forward Kareem Maddox turned in one of the most high-flying plays that Jadwin Gym has ever witnessed — dubiously waived off by the referees as offensive goaltending — throwing down a one-handed put-back slam off a Gunn miss.

Gunn led Princeton with 13 points in the win, while Finley chipped in 12 to go along with eight rebounds, four assists and four blocks — all game highs. For the season, Gunn has paced the Tigers with 10.5 points per game, just a tenth of a point per game ahead of second-leading scorer Finley.

Against Dartmouth on Friday, though, it was Savage who teamed with Gunn to form an unstoppable inside-outside duo for the Tigers. With Gunn draining five shots from beyond the arc and Savage punishing the Big Green with a series of hook shots and post moves, Princeton generated the type of balanced offensive attack it has been seeking all season and held on for a four-point win in its Ivy opener.

After Dartmouth took a 42-39 lead on a layup by forward Alex Barnett with 10:04 remaining in the game, Savage hit from inside the paint to pull the Tigers to within a point, then Gunn nailed a three with 7:54 on the clock to put Princeton up to stay, 44-42. The Big Green clawed back to within three points with 28 seconds remaining in the game, but four consecutive makes at the free-throw line by Savage and sophomore guard Marcus Schroeder closed out the 57-53 win.

“We all thought of it as a new season,” Gunn said of the team’s mindset heading into Ivy play. “We’ve grown a lot, learned a lot from those [12 consecutive losses]. We’re starting to come together as a team, and it’s just starting to click now.”

Gunn finished with 17 points on the game, while Savage contributed 15 points and five boards. Barnett — the Ivy League’s leading scorer and rebounder at 16.9 points and 7.1 boards per game — led Dartmouth with a 20-point, 10-rebound effort.

Held without a point for Princeton on Friday was last year’s leading scorer, senior forward and co-captain Kyle Koncz.

The next night against Harvard, Koncz made sure that his presence was felt early and often, netting 21 first-half points en route to a career-high 24-point effort that added to his astounding track record of success against the Crimson.

As a sophomore, Koncz set a career high of 20 points on the road against Harvard before supplanting that mark with a 23-point showing when the Crimson visited Jadwin two weeks later. After Saturday’s win, Koncz has a new personal best, and the same Ivy League foe was yet again the victim.

“I don’t have any personal vendetta against Harvard,” Koncz said. “Maybe they just don’t want to guard me. We’ll just have to see what happens next time we play.”

The Crimson, meanwhile, might not be looking forward to that day so eagerly. Koncz hit five threes and scored all but 10 of Princeton’s 31 first-half points in single-handedly keeping the Tigers afloat against a determined Harvard squad in the early going. Though the Crimson held a 33-31 lead going into the locker room, it was Koncz’s torrid shooting that was the highlight of the first half.

“I haven’t been that hot in a while,” Koncz said, “not this season.”

Careful not to force anything in the second half with Harvard honing in on him, Koncz took only three more shots the rest of the way, content to create more freedom on the perimeter for his teammates. The chief beneficiary proved to be Gunn, who erupted for 17 points after intermission following a scoreless first half.

For the second night in a row, Gunn buried the three-pointer that put the Tigers on top to stay, pulling Princeton out of a 49-48 hole with 6:16 to go. Gunn’s shot sparked a 20-5 Tiger run to close Harvard out, with big buckets also thrown in by Schroeder and senior guard Kevin Steuerer. Schroeder finished with seven points and a team-high three assists, while Steuerer poured in a season-high 12 points to go along with six rebounds.

Princeton drew key contributions from up and down the roster in putting together this three-game streak that has revitalized its season, and Koncz pointed to the Tigers’ selfless mindset as an explanation.

“The guys really care for each other, that’s the big thing,” Koncz said. “We have good chemistry, and I think that really shows on the court.”

It certainly showed during Princeton’s first Ivy League weekend. And all thanks to a little tune-up.