Men's Basketball: Tigers alone at top after two big wins

Princeton (9-8 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) headed into halftime with a nine-point lead over Cornell (15-7, 5-1), but with 15 minutes, 24 seconds left in the game, Big Red center Jeff Foote scored on a layup to close the gap to 34-31. Cornell seemed to have figured out the Tigers’ defensive schemes, having scored 11 points in just under five minutes.

For several minutes, the game hung in the balance, with neither team able to convert on its scoring opportunities. All-Ivy Cornell forward Ryan Wittman missed a pair of three-pointers — one on a dreadful air ball — that could have tied the game.

Finally, junior center Pawel Buczak decided that he had enough. He stole the ball as the Big Red was attempting to cross half-court and promptly called a timeout. Buczak received the ball at the top of the key off an in-bounds pass and then drove to the basket and scored on a layup to push the margin back to five.

About a minute and a half later, Buczak knocked down his third three-pointer of the night.

“I’ll go where things open up for me. I’ve been working on my shot lately, and they were there open today,” Buczak said. “I’m not going to take a three even if it’s open and there are 30 seconds left on the shot clock, but I thought they came within the flow of the offense.”

Buczak led the Tigers with 15 points and six rebounds on six-of-seven shooting, knocking in all three of his attempts from behind the arc.

With the play of Princeton’s tenacious defense, the three-point margin would more than hold up. The Big Red would score only 10 more points through the rest of the game, giving it 41 total points — a far cry from its season average of 74.2 points per game coming into Friday’s contest.

Every time Cornell guard Louis Dale — the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year — looked to drive to the basket, he saw a Tiger in his way. Every time Wittman tried to get himself untracked, he found a hand in his face.

Princeton’s disruptive defense kept Cornell to just under 32 percent shooting for the game. Wittman was just four-of-10, while Dale was a paltry two-of-11.

“Holding them to 41 points, I don’t think that’s an everyday occurrence,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said. “Something kind of came together.”

Princeton was opportunistic as well, scoring 21 points off 14 Big Red turnovers in the game.

It was a brilliant defensive performance altogether, one that seemed to fluster the Big Red more as the night progressed. The Tigers sealed the victory with their well-balanced scoring, as four different players reached double-digits in scoring.

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It would have been easy for Princeton to get overly excited with handing Cornell its first Ivy League loss in two years. If anything, Friday night’s game was just an overture to the match against Columbia (8-12, 3-3), which was coming off an impressive 74-63 road victory against Penn the night before.

The Tigers’ defensive intensity jumped up another notch against the Lions. Princeton opened up the game 9-0, and it took the Lions almost 10 minutes to get in their first points of the game.

Princeton went into halftime leading 27-11. Columbia forward Jason Miller, who had poured in 21 points against Penn the night before, could only muster two points on eight field-goal attempts.

The Tigers coasted through the second half to the 63-35 victory. The Lions finished up with a dreadful 23.9 percent in shooting for the game.

In both games, it seemed as if Princeton’s defense frustrated its opponents more as the game went on.

“If you’re only able to score 11 points in a half, that’s frustrating,” sophomore guard Dan Mavraides said. “Defense is how we’re going to win games. I think we’re a very quick and solid defensive team. I feel like holding a team, whether you’re up 31-21, 21-10, holding a team and limiting their offense, I think it’s definitely more frustrating for them.”

But what was the most impressive facet of the team’s play last weekend? It could have been the Tigers’ defense, a unit that held both of its opponents to under 32 percent shooting. It could have been the play of Buczak and junior center Zach Finley, who led Princeton with 11 points and eight rebounds against Columbia. It could have been the rapidly improving offense, the team’s hustle on the court or the contributions from every player.

All of these things were notable. Still, the Tigers should at least be a little excited about the weekend’s accomplishments and results. That these guys barely raised an eyebrow may be the best result of the weekend.

“We’ve worked really hard. It’s nice to see that pays dividends,” Buczak said of the victory over Cornell. “It’s a good win.”

“That was a tough game,” sophomore forward Kareem Maddox said. “It’s only half a weekend, and we’ll see how we feel tomorrow after the Columbia game.”

Even after that blowout, the Tigers hardly seemed thrilled with their accomplishments.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” said Mavraides, who scored 20 points over the two games. “Four games in, that’s nothing. Every game is so important and so difficult away and at home. We’re just getting ready for next weekend.”

This team is confident, scrappy and focused. That this team has these qualities is why it sits atop the Ivy League standings. They are qualities Johnson looks for in his team all the time.

“We held our home court. We’re just trying to continue, to make forward progress,” Johnson said. “We realize it’s just 4-0 right now. It’s not too far in the season.”

Can the Tigers keep that focus for the rest of the season? That’s the ultimate question. If they can, they have a chance to be relevant in the race for the Ivy League crown.

This weekend was an incredibly impressive one, but Princeton doesn’t really care to acknowledge that right now.

“They should feel good,” Johnson said. “But we have 10 games to go.”