Men's Basketball: Lake’s threes nearly enough in close loss

Aside from the men’s basketball team’s consistent ability to win in incredibly low-scoring games, one noticeable characteristic the Tigers (7-5 overall) have displayed throughout the season is a reliance on the starting lineup. Though the players from the bench have played exceptionally at times, in dire times, the team has normally depended on the starting lineup to turn things around.

But with a new year Princeton relied on new players, namely senior forward and co-captain Nick Lake. Though Lake was only in Monday’s game against Maine for the final 53 seconds, in that time he managed to knock down two three-pointers with 20 seconds left to spare and singlehandedly cut the Black Bears’ lead to two points.

Grabbing the offensive rebound off a missed three-pointer from junior forward Kareem Maddox, Lake went up for the jumper. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time for Lake to get a good shot, and the ball bounced off the rim, giving Maine the slim 52-50 win.

Despite nearly overtaking the Black Bears late in the match, the Tigers did not start the game in a pretty position. In the first half, Princeton went five-for-20 in shooting while also allowing the Black Bears to go on a 16-3 run. Fortunately for fans of the Orange and Black, Princeton came out of the timeout roaring and cut the deficit to 26-25 with 18 minutes, 28 seconds left on the clock. That was as close as the Tigers would get to coming away with a “W” to start the new year. In a last-ditch effort to take over the match, Princeton started sending Maine to the free-throw line at the three-minute mark. Luck was not with the Tigers, though, as the Black Bears shot far better than their team average from the line, going six of eight in free throws.

The loss to Maine ended Princeton’s five-game winning streak, its longest since winning seven straight last season in the beginning of 2009. The Tigers won two of the games over a four-day stretch during the break.

One win was a late Christmas gift for Princeton, which defeated Wagner 45-42 at home on Dec. 30 after two weeks without a competitive matchup. While it won, the game was ugly: Princeton shot just 34 percent, lost the rebound battle, 31-24, and sunk only 18.5 percent of its three-pointers.

“Even though it was a low-scoring game, we could have allowed fewer points,” junior guard Dan Mavraides said. “We could have given a better defensive effort. There were also a lot of open looks that we didn’t take advantage of. Maybe you could blame it on two weeks without having a game, but we didn’t shoot as well as we would have liked to. The past couple games have not been pretty, but we got wins.”

Thanks to the Seahawks’ 27 turnovers — due largely to the Tigers’ 14 steals — Princeton overcame a 12-point second-half deficit and eventually emerged victorious.

“We started putting a lot of pressure on them,” Mavraides said. “We picked them up with full-court man-to-man … We just put a lot of pressure on them, and they turned over the ball. Toward the end, in the last 10 to 12 minutes, we saw a different team than at the beginning of the game. If we had played like that at the beginning of the game, we would never have been down by 12 points.”

Though the Tigers led 9-2 in the opening minutes of the matchup against Wagner, the Seahawks went on a 16-6 run to earn a lead that they would maintain for most of the game. The half ended with the teams tied at 22 after Mavraides — who led all scorers with 21 points — found the bottom of the net for a three-pointer.

Though the scoring was close — and low — throughout the rest of the half, in the final possession Princeton had a slim 44-42 lead. In the last few minutes, the Seahawks started fouling during the Princeton possessions, but the Tigers made their free throws and fended off Wagner’s offense to earn the win.

Though Princeton led its game against Saint Joseph’s for all but 2:07, a 14-2 run by the Hawks early in the second half brought them to within two points of the of the Tigers. In contrast to its other matches over the break, Princeton’s shooting was on point against Saint Joseph’s. The Tigers hit 24 of 51 from the field compared to 22 of 59 by the Hawks, and four Princeton players reached double digits in the game. Princeton also outrebounded the Hawks, 41-32.