With three minutes, five seconds remaining in the game and his team down 52-51, freshman guard Doug Davis found freshman guard Patrick Saunders, who knocked down the jumper to give Princeton a one-point lead. Despite giving up both the 13-point edge they had earned with seven minutes left in the first half and their 26-20 halftime advantage, the Tigers were still in the game.
In crunch time, however, the offense simply froze over.
Princeton had a few chances to extend its lead — junior center Pawel Buczak had a pair of free throws, and Saunders had a layup attempt — but the team couldn’t find the bottom of the net.
Turnovers and another pair of missed jumpers prevented the Tigers from adding to their point total for the remainder of the game.
The Bonnies, meanwhile, became more aggressive, attacking the basket after a pair of missed three-pointers. Forward Andrew Nicholson earned two free-throw attempts with one minute, 53 seconds remaining and drained both to give St. Bonaventure a 54-53 lead.
The Bonnies never backed down, driving into the paint and knocking the Tigers back on their heels each time Princeton had the ball. The result was a layup and two more free-throw attempts. In all, St. Bonaventure had six trips to the charity stripe in the last two minutes, and it sank all six attempts to nudge its lead to seven, its largest of the game.
“You know, against South Carolina, there were very few good parts for us, but against St. Bonaventure, we bounced back, played together as a team, but not for the whole 40 minutes,” junior guard and captain Nick Lake said. “Down the stretch, we made a couple of mistakes. I think it’s getting used to winning. We’re not quite there yet. We need to keep working on sustaining those stretches for the whole 40 minutes.”
Princeton was looking to rebound after a shellacking at the hands of South Carolina last Tuesday. Early on against St. Bonaventure, everything went right for the Tigers: Shots went in, the defense was locked in, and turnovers were down.
The game kicked off with a pair of turnovers by the Bonnies. Princeton made them count, with sophomore forward Kareem Maddox and senior guard Jason Briggs both knocking down three-pointers to give the Tigers a quick 6-0 lead and force St. Bonaventure to take a timeout.
Princeton didn’t take its foot off the gas during the first six minutes, making shots and playing stifling defense. Maddox, Briggs, Buczak, Saunders and Lake combined to score another 16 points, giving the Tigers a 22-9 advantage with 7:01 remaining in the first half.
After turning the ball over only twice in the first 13 minutes, Princeton gave up the ball another four times in the last seven. The Bonnies capitalized on the turnovers as well as a number of missed Tiger jumpers, going on an 11-4 run to close the half and pull within six.
St. Bonaventure came out of halftime in the same gear. Nicholson dunked the ball 13 seconds into the period, igniting a 7-0 run that gave the Bonnies their first lead of the game at 27-26.
The Tigers, undaunted, clawed right back. Saunders converted on a layup attempt, and Briggs knocked down a three-pointer for a 5-0 spurt that quickly reclaimed the lead for Princeton.
From that point on, the game was a slugfest. Neither team found much breathing room — the closest either team got was when Buczak took advantage of a St. Bonaventure turnover and converted a layup as Nicholson fouled him. Buczak drained the free throw and pushed the Tigers’ lead back up to six, but a number of free-throw attempts pulled the Bonnies back into the game.
At the end of the day, the Tigers simply didn’t have enough left in the tank to finish the game. They played well for 37 minutes but couldn’t make the necessary plays to come up with a win in the last three.
“We have to expect we’re going to be in the game at the end,” Lake said. “We have to be confident.”
Briggs and Maddox led Princeton with 10 points each, while Lake pitched in nine points by hitting three of four shots from behind the arc.
Still, the game was a step in the right direction for Princeton, especially after its abysmal performance against South Carolina. The Tigers displayed mental toughness in their effort against St. Bonaventure, refusing to allow the bitter taste of their previous loss to linger.
“We’re making progress, so that’s a positive,” Lake said, “but we’re not going to be satisfied until we win games. It’s one thing to play hard, but we didn’t make the plays we needed to win the game. We can’t be happy with that.”
Princeton will have another chance to get its first home win Wednesday at Jadwin Gymnasium when it takes on Rutgers.
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