Men's Basketball: Knights finish off Tigers

“I think they got more penetration than we would have liked,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said. “But credit their guys. They made the plays they needed to make.”

The Tigers (2-5 overall) fell to the Scarlet Knights (6-3) on Wednesday night, 49-44, in a back-and-forth game that was more or less sealed with Ndiaye’s dunk. The loss kept Princeton winless at home.

The Tigers had roughly nine seconds left and needed a three-point shot to tie the game after Ndiaye’s slam. Freshman guard Doug Davis carried the ball all the way up the court and pulled up at the top of the three-point line for a highly contested shot that fell well short of the mark.

Princeton battled back from a six-point deficit with roughly six minutes left in the game, tying the game at 44 with three minutes, 55 seconds remaining. After clawing back, however, the Tigers could not sink a shot and did not score for the remainder of the game.

Princeton had a golden chance to take the lead with 44 seconds remaining when junior center Pawel Buczak leapt into the air, grabbed a perfectly placed inbounds pass and banked a gentle shot off the glass. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the ball just wouldn’t go down.

“The defense is getting better — that’s noticeable,” Johnson said. “But we’ve got to put the ball in the hole. It’s hard for how we like to play. We’ve got to make our free throws. Obviously we didn’t shoot the three-point shot well, didn’t shoot the chippies well.”

Princeton shot just 30.7 percent from behind the arc and only 37.5 percent from the field. The Tigers sank all of their free-throw attempts, but they only went to the line four times the entire game. Rutgers didn’t shoot the ball much better — only 40 percent from the field — but it did visit the charity stripe 23 times over the course of the evening. The Scarlet Knights knocked down 16 of those attempts, and ultimately that may have been the deciding factor in the game.

Another crucial factor in Princeton’s loss was the team’s rebounding deficit. The Tigers pulled down 21 boards, while Rutgers got 28 rebounds.

Despite the outcome, Princeton played tough all night, ceding nothing. When Coburn came up with a steal, he raced down the court thinking he had an easy two points. Junior center Zach Finley was sprinting right behind him, however, and when Coburn left his feet for the layup, Finley smacked the ball into the backboard, denying Coburn the score.

The Tigers made other great plays during the night. During the late-game run that brought Princeton back into contention for the victory. Junior guard and captain Nick Lake drove hard to the basket and was fouled with 4:43 remaining, earning a one-and-one situation. Lake sank the first free throw and then the second as well.

Sophomore guard Dan Mavraides put the ball on the floor, then pulled up for a midrange jumper that was good.

Davis shook free moments later at the top of the key for an open look, which he calmly knocked down.

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All the while, the Princeton defense placed an absolute stranglehold on the Scarlet Knights’ offense.

Yet when crunch time arrived, those plays never materialized. It’s a theme that has plagued the Tigers time after time this season. In every game save the South Carolina contest, Princeton has been within striking distance but has not been able to consistently execute at the end of the game.

“We’re playing good teams. We obviously haven’t executed, whether offensively or defensively, we just haven’t made that big play,” Johnson said. “It’s learning how to win and believing that we can do it. We can only feel as good as we want to be winning. We’re not where we want to be right now. It stings, but we’ve got to grow up, got to mature and make these plays.”

Princeton hasn’t made many of those plays this season. It’s the next big step that the Tigers need to take in the second year of Johnson’s reign.

“It is what it is,” Johnson said. “We’re the only ones that can fix it.”