Men's Basketball: Tigers fall out of Ivy's top spot

Princeton (9-10 overall, 4-2 Ivy League) fell 60-48 to Yale (9-13, 4-4) and 61-43 to Brown (7-15, 1-7). These were painful results for the Tigers, who were riding a seven-game winning streak and had recently upset Ivy League favorite Cornell. The winning streak came to a halt after Princeton ran into a wall Friday night in New Haven, Conn.

The Tigers battled back and forth with the Bulldogs in the opening minutes and took a 13-10 lead behind a string of three-pointers from freshman guard Doug Davis, sophomore forward Kareem Maddox and sophomore guard Dan Mavraides.

At that point, however, Yale began to take control, as the Tigers could not deal with the Bulldogs’ physicality in the paint. Yale came up with offensive rebound after offensive rebound, leading to 15 second-chance points for the Bulldogs. Behind the strength of their play in the paint, the Bulldogs opened up a 31-20 lead by halftime. They shot a modest 43.8 percent for the half, but they hoisted up 32 shots compared to Princeton’s 22.

“We made it pretty tough on ourselves, allowing them to get so many offensive rebounds and so many offensive possessions,” Mavraides said. “We knew that’s what they pride themselves on, crashing the boards. We knew that coming in, but we didn’t execute.”

The Tigers only knocked down seven of those 22 shots. They were fortunate that four of them were three-pointers: Otherwise, the margin at halftime would have been even wider. The Tigers also took only two free throws in the first half.

Princeton never mounted a serious comeback in the second half, as Yale only continued to add to its lead, extending it to 24 points with six minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the game. Forward Ross Morin recorded a double-double for the Bulldogs, notching 10 points and 10 rebounds, and forward Travis Pinick pulled down 10 rebounds and chipped in eight points on four-of-five shooting. Yale finished the night with 32 points in the paint.

The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Tigers 43-23 for the game.

With Yale grabbing so many offensive rebounds, it became difficult for Princeton to develop any kind of offensive flow. The Tigers also had to expend energy defending the Bulldogs for such extended periods of time.

“When you’re playing defense for multiple possessions on their one trip down the court, it takes away some of your energy on the offensive side,” Mavraides said. “It’s also pretty frustrating and disheartening when you play good defense for 25 [or] 30 seconds, and then they get offensive rebounds and use a whole shot clock again.”

Davis led Princeton in scoring with 11 points for the night. No other Tiger reached double-digits.

After the deflating loss, the Tigers looked to get back in the win column Saturday night against the Bears. Before the game, Brown was the only Ivy League team without a win in conference play, though it had played several very close games.

But come game time, the Bears hardly looked like the bottom-feeders of the Ivy League.

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Brown pounced on Princeton at the outset of the game, as guard Adrian Williams and forward Matt Mullery knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to give the Bears a 6-0 lead. The first two Princeton possessions, in contrast, resulted in a pair of turnovers.

After the shoddy start, the Tigers started to settle down and get into the game. Princeton took a 10-8 lead behind a layup from junior guard Marcus Schroeder and a pair of three-pointers from Mavraides and Maddox.

Williams made a layup to knot things back up again at 10, but then the Tigers put together a 5-0 run behind two made free throws from junior center Pawel Buczak and another three-pointer from Mavraides.

Princeton seemed to have shaken off the funk that the team was mired in the previous night when, with the Tigers leading 19-14 with 4:49 remaining in the first half, the Bears started to heat up. Mullery and forward Morgan Kelly each knocked down three-pointers to put Brown back on top, 20-19. Maddox scored on a layup to put Princeton back up by one, but guard Peter Sullivan’s free throw make knotted the game at 21 heading into halftime.

In the second half, the Tigers lost their shooting touch. Princeton mustered a meager five points of total offense in the first half of the frame.

The Bears, on the other hand, continued to pour it on. With 10 minutes remaining, they led 38-26, and the Tigers never got to within 10 points through the rest of the game.

Mullery, Sullivan and Williams tormented the Tigers all night long, scoring 19, 13 and 11 points, respectively. The trio shot six of 13 from behind the arc.

“We didn’t get the stops we needed to,” Mavraides said. “We didn’t guard the three-point line as well as we needed to, and we couldn’t make up for it on offense this time.”

As a team, Brown shot 61 percent in the second half, compared to 38 percent in the first half. Princeton, meanwhile, went the opposite direction, shooting only 32 percent in the second half after converting 40 percent of its shots in the first.

For the Tigers, the symptoms were different, but the underlying problem was the same both nights: They didn’t play solid defense. Princeton allowed Yale to take advantage of its size down low and didn’t defend the three-point line with enough intensity against the Bears.

Last weekend, the Tigers gave up 76 points over two games. This weekend, they gave up 121.

“I think, to be honest, we just didn’t have our best defensive weekend,” Mavraides said of the team’s struggles. “That’s something that we pride ourselves on. A ... reason we’ve won the games so far is our defense.”

Princeton won’t have much time to stew over its first Ivy League losses, as Penn will be coming to town on Tuesday. The Quakers come off back-to-back Ivy League wins over the two teams that just dropped the Tigers into second place in the conference.

It will be a challenge, but it will also be a great opportunity for Princeton to prove its mettle.

“I can only speak for myself, but I think … there’s nothing more that we want than to get some of that momentum back,” Mavraides said. “It’s good to have a game soon after. We have to get ready for Penn. It’s not going to be easy at all, but we’re excited. We’re ready to get this bad taste out of our mouth.”

The Tigers are hoping that an energetic home crowd and a game in the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium can get them back on the right track. Princeton will face Penn on Tuesday night.