Weekend Update: Tigers retake first place

With six and a half minutes remaining on Saturday at a media timeout, the men’s basketball team was in trouble. Just two weeks after beating Columbia on the road by 30 points, the Tigers trailed the Lions by four points at home. Senior guard Dan Mavraides, who had been honored for Senior Night before the game, knew he had to make his likely last game at Jadwin Gymnasium one to remember.

“There was a moment when I looked at the shot clock, and we were down, and the game had been miserable for me personally, but I just thought, ‘Why am I nervous, why am I scared?’” Mavraides said after the game. “‘We’ve been in this position a lot. I’ve made a million shots in this gym, and I just need to play in the moment.’”

Mavraides forced a tie-up underneath on the inbounds play, drove to the basket, earned two free throws and made both. As most of his teammates jogged back to protect their basket, he challenged Dean Kowalski in the backcourt, forcing the sophomore to travel. Mavraides then cut through the lane, received a pass and hit a layup, tying the game at 50.

The senior was not finished. He hit a contested three-pointer from the right wing to extend a one-point lead to four; moments later, after the Lions made another push, he buried another triple from the opposite side. A baseline drive and pass set up sophomore forward Ian Hummer for an easy layup, and a falling, off-balance leaner went in with 29 seconds left, the final touch on the 66-61 victory.

“Down the stretch, the crowd was a big help,” Mavraides said. “Kareem and I looked at each other across the foul line at one point, and we just said, ‘Let’s do this.’”

Classmate Kareem Maddox also turned in a strong performance in his final regular-season game at Jadwin, scoring the Tigers’ first six points and finishing with 20 and eight rebounds.

Just seconds before the final horn sounded, word trickled through the stadium that Yale had defeated Harvard, 70-69. With that result, Princeton now stands alone atop the conference standings, a half-game ahead of the Crimson. Every other team has been mathematically eliminated from the race.

The previous night, the Tigers defeated Cornell, 84-66. It was their highest scoring output in league play since dropping 85 at Brown on March 4, 2000.

Princeton plays at Harvard on Saturday, March 5. If the Tigers defeat Dartmouth on Friday, a win at Lavietes Pavilion would clinch their first Ivy League title in seven years.

Check back Monday morning for a full recap of the weekend's action.