Men's Basketball: Slow start dooms Tigers as comeback falls short

For the second time in as many games, the men’s basketball team dug itself into a huge hole. For the second time, it rallied — but this time it wasn’t enough, as Army (2-1 overall) downed Princeton (2-1), 56-52, on Saturday afternoon.

“They came out with more intensity than us. That’s it,” senior forward and co-captain Nick Lake said, summing up the disappointing loss.

By all rights, the Tigers shouldn’t even have had a chance to walk away with a win. With 14 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the game, Army had a 41-21 lead, Black Knight guard Marcus Nelson having just taken advantage of a steal to dunk the ball.

Though neither team could score over the next several minutes, head coach Sydney Johnson ’97, looking for a spark, finally found a lineup that strung together a series of plays. Johnson inserted freshman forwards Will Barrett and Ian Hummer, as well as Lake, into the lineup. They, along with senior guard and co-captain Marcus Schroeder and junior guard Dan Mavraides, ignited a 10-0 Princeton run.

“There was some fire there in order to come back,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t like they stopped playing. I think it showed something. The youngsters out there who were on the floor, they ought to be proud of their minutes, but as a team, we weren’t as strong as we needed to be.”

Hummer kicked off the run by sinking a pair of free throws. A couple of stops later, Mavraides rebounded Lake’s missed three-pointer. He took the ball back behind the three-point line, drove into the defense and used a nifty behind-the-back pass to get Lake another good three-point look. Lake stroked it.

On the Black Knights’ next trip down, Barrett stole the ball. Mavraides rushed the Tigers down the floor and delivered the ball to a wide-open Schroeder, who promptly swished another three-pointer.

Army took a timeout, but on its next play, Princeton forced another turnover. Mavraides took advantage by driving into the paint and knocking down a pull-up jumper to complete the 10-0 run.

Army went on a 6-0 run, slowing the Tigers’ momentum, but Princeton wouldn’t quit. A little back and forth ensued, and Mavraides hit another pair of three pointers. Hummer knocked down a free throw and dunked to bring the Tigers back to within 10 with 4:44 remaining.

Princeton then went on a 7-1 run to close the gap to four. Barrett drove into the paint and kicked out for a Mavraides three. Mavraides played the role of distributor, as he drove and dished to Hummer for yet another dunk. Lake capped off the run with a pair of free throws.

With just 1:22 left, the Tigers had a chance to close out the game. They were aided by Army’s poor free-throw shooting. Johnson decided to start fouling the Black Knights early in the game, and it worked fairly well. For the game, Army was only 10 of 18 from the charity stripe.

The two teams continued to go back and forth. Princeton had a chance to cut the deficit with 44 seconds remaining, but it could not convert.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The Tigers fought till the very end but ultimately didn’t have enough to compete the comeback.

“We had a chance to win there at the end, and we were confident,” Lake said. “We just put ourselves in a bad position at the start.”

The last 10 minutes of the game stood in stark contrast to the first 30. For much of the game, the Black Knights did almost anything they wanted on offense, and all those buckets allowed Army to get behind the ball and into its defensive sets.

“I think anything that was done on their end defensively was keyed by them making a basket on the offensive end such that they could hustle back,” Johnson said. “The fact that they were able to score and get set into their defense was what we were trying to adjust as much as anything. We were not good defensively.”

When Princeton tightened up the defense in the last 10 minutes, the Tigers finally managed to go on a few runs.

“There are small positives in the second half, and what we can take away from the last 10 minutes or so is that, if we had played like that from the beginning of the game, it would have been a different story,” Mavraides said.

The Black Knights focused their defense on senior centers Zach Finley and Pawel Buczak. The two had been playing in tandem through the first two games, and to great effect. But, this time, whenever Finley or Buczak got the ball in the post, Army swarmed them with double or even triple teams.

The results weren’t pretty. The Tigers consistently turned the ball over in the early going, which allowed the Black Knights to get better looks at the hoop.

Princeton didn’t score until the 12:19 mark in the first half, at which point it was already down 10, and the Tigers had already committed nine turnovers.

Army forward Cleveland Richard was an extremely disruptive force on the defensive end, with eight steals on the game. He was efficient on offense as well, leading the Black Knights with 18 points and shooting 50 percent. His only shortcoming on Saturday was his free-throw shooting: He only sank three of seven tries.

Mavraides led Princeton with 14 points and five assists. Lake contributed 10 points, and Schroeder and Hummer each had seven.

For Princeton, it was an extremely disappointing loss. It was the Tigers’ chance to get to 3-0 on the season before Tuesday’s game against a tough George Washington team. Princeton will need to solve its problem with its poor starts.

“I know we have a lot of potential, and I know everyone on this team cares about the team and about winning and competing, but it didn’t show today,” Mavraides said. “That’s something that should just come naturally, and a loss shouldn’t have to teach you that. We need to learn from today’s game and move on.”