A crowd of 3,840 came to watch the roller-coaster game. Princeton seemed to have an insurmountable lead several times during the night, but the Quakers kept coming back.
Penn (9-10, 3-2) came into the match having already lost a double-overtime match to Harvard last weekend.
Princeton dominated the first half, 28-19, and led by as many as 13 points. But Penn came back fighting, opening the period with eight unanswered points to make the score 28-27, and Princeton called a timeout to stall the momentum.
With 15 minutes, 34 seconds left in the second half, junior guard Douglas Davis took a pass from senior forward and co-captain Kareem Maddox to shoot a short jump shot for his 1000th career point. Davis is now the 27th Princeton player to reach the milestone and is only the second player to reach the milestone during his junior year.
Davis said he was happy just to have the goal out of the picture. “It feels good to get that out of the way, but it would have been terrible if we had lost.”
Princeton found its momentum again, leading by as much as 12 points in the second half before Penn made another effort to push the game forward.
A series of three-point shots by the the Quakers left Princeton leading by only three points with one minute, 16 seconds left in the game.
Princeton fans and players alike were stunned when Penn guard Tyler Bernardini drained a trey off an inbound pass with 3.6 seconds left in the game, forcing an overtime at 56-56.
The Tigers’ worries mounted when Penn found its first lead of the night at 59-56 with only two minutes, six seconds remaining in the game. In the final minute, sophomore forward Ian Hummer charged through the paint, narrowing the gap to one point.
The turning point came during the most bizarre play of the season. While falling to the ground, Penn forward Jack Eggleston attempted to call timeout even though the team did not have any left. After a long deliberation by the referees, Penn was given a technical foul. Davis sunk one of two free throws to tie the game with 16 seconds left.
“I was kind of pulling for a traveling call, but a lot of our teammates knew [Penn had no timeouts left],” senior guard Dan Mavraides said. “They told me to be quiet, let them call timeout.”
Sophomore forward Ian Hummer intercepted Penn’s inbound pass before being fouled with 13 seconds left and made two free throws to reclaim the lead.
Head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 was happy that the team was able to return back to form after Penn kept looking for a comeback. He did admit that “quite frankly, there were a lot of things that we didn’t do well.”
“We are not going to point fingers, as much as our entire group needs to learn from it.”
Princeton remains alone at the top of the Ivy League, a half-game ahead of Harvard and two up on Penn. The Tigers will continue Ivy League play when they travel to Columbia and Cornell on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Johnson said he was eager for the upcoming weekend.
“We are on the top of the league but that won’t change how we play. People can’t wait to play us.”
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