Senior center Pawel Buczak — all 6 feet, 11 inches of him — dribbled around freshman forward Ian Hummer’s pick. Penn’s defense collapsed; Buczak found Hummer rolling to the net, and he threw down an emphatic dunk to give the men’s basketball team a 19-point lead.
Princeton (20-8 overall, 11-3 Ivy League) went on to win 68-56 — its 100th victory ever against the Quakers — but as dominant as the Tigers were in the first half, they needed almost all of that cushion to hold off a furious second-half rally from Penn (6-22, 5-9).
The Quakers got as close as seven points with two minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the game when forward Jack Eggleston dunked off a Princeton turnover, but the Tigers stiffened on defense — Penn missed four straight shots after the dunk — and sank enough free throws down the stretch to quash the rally.
As large as the rally was, the Quakers hung around in part because of some uncharacteristic misses at the free-throw line for the Tigers, who shot just 26 of 36, with eight of those misses coming in the second half.
If the second half wasn’t very pretty, though, the first half was beautiful. It was a half of basketball that couldn’t have been a more befitting acknowledgement of a stellar quartet of seniors. Tuesday night’s game was Senior Night and the last Ivy League contest for Buczak, senior center Zach Finley, senior guard and co-captain Marcus Schroeder and senior forward and co-captain Nick Lake.
“We’ve had a heck of a turnaround, and we’ve had four seniors who spearheaded it for the most part,” head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said. “They’ve been tremendous, to the point where it makes you weep in terms of everything that they’ve gone through to get us to this point, so I’m really happy for them.”
“Just to start with all four of us out there, it meant a lot in our last game, at Jadwin — just an exclamation point on our careers,” Schroeder said.
Hummer’s dunk was part of an astounding 22-0 run that began after Eggleston hit a three-pointer with 11:54 remaining in the first half to cut the Tigers’ lead to four.
The Quakers wouldn’t score again for over seven minutes.
The run was characterized by tough defense — especially on Penn guard Zach Rosen — sweet shooting and plenty of hustle plays.
There was Buczak, rebounding his own missed layup and flinging the ball back into sophomore guard Doug Davis’ hands. Davis gave the ball to sophomore forward Patrick Saunders, moved to the other side of the court and promptly swished a three after he got the ball back.
There was Davis on the defense end, tip-blocking a three-pointer and running down the court, getting the ball back and swishing another three.
There was Finley diving on the court to recover a loose ball that the Quakers’ had deflected; Finley drawing a charge on a driving Rosen.
There was Schroeder intercepting a pair of passes on defense.
It was a dominating half of basketball for the Tigers, which saw them walk off the court with a 40-14 lead. Princeton shot 56.5 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. Penn, on the other hand, shot just 23.8 percent while turning over the ball 10 times. The Tigers were all over the passing lanes as they recorded six steals.
Davis led Princeton with 16 points, shooting six of seven from the field. Four of his makes were from beyond the arc, but his most impressive play was a beautiful baseline drive that resulted in a hanging layup.
Penn did start to find its rhythm in the second half, and with a little better defense on its part, tried to make the game interesting. The Quakers went on a 9-0 run to open the second half, but so large was the Tigers’ lead that they still trailed by 19.
Penn kept on coming, but Princeton made enough plays to hold off the rally. Davis led the Tigers with 21 points on the night on eight-of-14 shooting. Hummer and junior guard Dan Mavraides both finished in double figures as well, with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The win gave the Tigers 20 wins for the first time since the 2004 season, when they also finished 20-8. Princeton also swept the season series from Penn for the first time since the 2000–01 season.
The season may not be over for the Tigers, however — and they certainly don’t want it to be. Though no NCAA bid will be coming its way, bids to other postseason tournaments, such as the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) and the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), are still possibilities. Princeton will have to wait to hear if it will be given any options, but the Tigers certainly want to play.
“I think we would represent ourselves well, win or lose,” Johnson said. “I think you would have a good team participating in the CBI [College Basketball Invitational], NIT, CIT, whatever bid comes our way — we’ll jump on it.”
“We hope so,” Lake said of potentially playing in the postseason. “Nothing is guaranteed at this point, but ... 20 wins is a pretty good season. We really hope we get a chance to keep playing.”
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