Men's Basketball: Tigers fall to Cornell

After a hard-fought loss at Cornell last Friday, the men’s basketball team rebounded with a victory over Columbia on Saturday night. It was the second time this season the Tigers (17-8 overall, 8-3 Ivy League) lost to Cornell (24-4, 10-1) by three points and posted a double-digit victory over Columbia (10-16, 4-8) in the same weekend.

Princeton’s 67-52 victory against Columbia marks the first time the Tigers have beaten the Lions on the road in five years, offering some consolation for Princeton after a 47-50 loss to the Big Red that ended the Tigers’ Ivy League championship hopes. Princeton produced solid play both nights, bringing the energy and intensity that were lacking last weekend when the Tigers lost to Brown.

“I thought that our team showed a tremendous amount of maturity,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said after Princeton’s victory at Columbia. “I think we are growing up a bit. We’ve learned some hard lessons ... One of those lessons is when our energy is low, we get beat at home. When our energy is high, we can have two great efforts on the road. We came up short last night [at Cornell], but [our team] did a tremendous job of being mindful of that lesson and coming here tonight ready to play.”

One sign of the Tigers’ maturity is the team’s ability to control the pace of play. Cornell’s high-octane offense, led by center Jeff Foote and forward Ryan Wittman, has netted an average of 74 points per game this year. On Friday night, Princeton only allowed the Big Red to score 50 points, two-thirds of its usual tally.

“From our standpoint ... what we’ve been doing all year is playing tough defense, and that’s how we got to where we are today,” said junior guard Dan Mavraides, who led the team with 13 points. “It was a tough game, and both teams fought hard.”

Though the Tigers could never get the lead, they also never let Cornell build more than a nine-point advantage. The Big Red led by a basket at halftime. During the second half, Princeton managed to come within one point of the Big Red three times.

“At the beginning of each half, we got down a little bit, but that’s how it works sometimes,” senior center Pawel Buczak said. “We just couldn’t get over the hump, I guess, in the end. Both teams played with high energy. It was a battle. It was a game that meant a lot, and so you knew that was going to happen. It was tough to not come out on top.”

In the last minute of the game, Princeton still had a fighting chance. With 55 seconds left on the clock, Mavraides sunk two free throws to bring the Tigers to within three points of the Big Red.

After the team held Cornell off for a possession, senior center Zach Finley grabbed a rebound and called a timeout with 17 seconds to go. The Tigers attempted to set up a three but, faced with tough defense, settled for two when Mavraides drove in for a layup, bringing the score to 47-48 with four seconds remaining.

“We talked a lot [in the huddle] about wanting a three,” Johnson said. “I think all our guys are smart players, and we haven’t executed perfectly down the stretch in those moments. It’s a big play, but I don’t think it decided the game.

There’s a lot of other stuff that built up to it, and too bad we only got a two. It was tough obviously to get that bucket that we needed to send it into overtime.”

In a final attempt to get to overtime, Princeton fouled Wittman with two seconds left on the clock, but he secured the Big Red victory by netting both free throws.

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Indeed, at the end of the day, the game came down to free throws.

Cornell only made 34.2 percent of its shots, but made up for Princeton’s stifling defense by converting free throws. Of Cornell’s 50 points, 22 were scored from the charity stripe, and the team made an impressive 88 percent of its shots from the line. Foote, who has made 58.1 percent of his free throws this season, went seven-for-eight on the line.

While Princeton’s .391 shooting percentage was slightly better than the Big Red’s, the Tigers only had the chance to take 11 free throws. After shooting a perfect three-for-three in the first half, Princeton made four of eight from the line in the second. In a highly contested and physical game, the number of fouls called appeared somewhat uneven.

“It was interesting how the game played out,” Johnson said. “There was a lot in there that I won’t comment about. I talked to our team about how we really put our heart out there and played really hard and there was some stuff going on out there that we couldn’t control.”

Despite the disappointing loss, Princeton played with impressive intensity in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,473 at Newman Arena.

“I don’t think there’s a guy out there who didn’t play hard tonight for Princeton,” Johnson said. “We’ve just got to bottle that up and get a win ... We’ve just got to keep plugging.”

And that’s exactly what the Tigers did the next night against Columbia. The Tigers had a 7-4 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the game before the Lions went on a 10-point streak to grab a 14-7 advantage with 12:48 left in the half.

“We knew this game was just as important,” sophomore guard Douglas Davis said. “We were sloppy in the beginning, but we were able to pull around ... We [knew we] had to go out and perform tonight.”

The Tigers tied the game with a show-stopping sequence between senior guard and co-captain Marcus Schroeder and junior forward Kareem Maddox. Maddox stole the ball on the defensive end. Schroeder then got the ball on offense and drove toward the basket, dishing the ball to Maddox, who dunked it and brought the score to 16-16 with 8:27 remaining in the half. Maddox is also a contributing news writer for The Daily Princetonian.

“It’s something that Marcus does in practice a lot,” Maddox said. “It’s engrained on the big guys on the team. When Schroeder drives, cut; he’s going to find you. I thought it was a great pass and was a fun little dunk in front of their crowd.”

The next time down on defense, sophomore forward Patrick Saunders got the rebound, sending the ball back up court. Schroeder made a jumper to give the team a lead it would never relinquish. The Tigers went into the second half with an eight-point lead. In the second period, Columbia never got within six points of the Tigers, who led by 19 at two different times. Mavraides led the offense with 22 points.

Once again, the Tigers’ defense dictated the game. Mavraides and Maddox were matched up against Columbia’s offensive leaders Noruwa Agho and Niko Scott, who they shut down successfully.

“We talked a lot about guarding Cornell and Columbia as a team and not putting it on any one guy, but taking pride and having some faith that if there is a breakdown, a teammate will cover for you,” Johnson said. “For the most part this weekend, I thought we did that.”