On Saturday in Ohio, Princeton men’s basketball (0–1 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) fell 104–69 to the Akron Zips (2–0, 0–0 MAC), the reigning back-to-back Mid-American Conference champions.
Last season’s contest between the two teams was nothing short of spectacular for the Tigers, who rallied from a 15-point deficit and sealed the win with a dagger three from current captain and junior guard Dalen Davis with 1.8 seconds left.
Saturday’s outcome could not have been more different.
While the Tigers went toe-to-toe with the Zips for the first few minutes of the game, the momentum was short-lived. The Tigers could not recover from Akron’s deadly scoring run early in the first half and fell victim to their tenacious defense.
After the tip-off, it was Princeton who struck first. Senior forward Jackson Hicke made good on a tough turnaround jumper to give the Tigers a 2–0 advantage, their only lead of the game. Hicke led the Tigers with 15 points on five for 10 shooting.
The lead did not last, as Akron quickly tied the game with a strong dunk in transition.
For the first few minutes, Princeton hung around. After the Orange and Black went down 9–5, Hicke splashed a three to pull the score within one point. Later, a three from sophomore guard Jack Stanton squared the game at 13 apiece.
It was the three-ball that kept Princeton in the game early, scoring 3 of 4 three-point attempts to open up the game. However, they did not continue to score at this pace from deep, and shot 31.3 percent on the day, slightly lower than last season’s average of 35.5 percent from beyond the arc.
After the first six minutes of the game, Akron completely shut down the Tigers’ offense, consistently forcing the Tigers deep into the shot clock.
“We didn’t handle their pressure well, and we allowed that to affect us on offense,” Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 told The Daily Princetonian.
Princeton would be held scoreless for over seven minutes after Stanton’s three, as Akron would go on a 19-point run to take a 32–13 lead. The Zips capitalized on their strong half-court defense and pushed the ball with pace in transition.
Stanton finally broke the scoring drought with a lay-up before the two teams would trade buckets for the rest of the half.
Akron guard Shammah Scott hit a deep-three as the buzzer sounded to put Akron up 47–27 going into the break. If Princeton were to come back and pull off the upset, it desperately needed a remedy for the Zips’ defense.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the second half was more of the same. Akron picked up right where they left off and opened with an 8–1 scoring run to begin the second.
After just over eight minutes of play in the second, Akron built up a thirty-point lead, continuing to keep heavy pressure on a Tiger offense that could not seem to find the answer. The deficit did not dip below 30 for the rest of the game.
“There is a lot of season left and we can't let a loss like this affect us negatively,” Hicke told the ‘Prince.’ “We need to use it to take things away from it to improve in the future.”
Princeton is playing this year with a younger squad, having no senior returnees and an incoming class of six first-years who will need to develop quickly as the season progresses.
On Saturday, five of the team’s first-years saw the court. First-year guard Landon Clark got the start, with first-year forwards Sebastian Whitfield and Jacob Hammond subbing in throughout the first half.
First-year forward Cash McSweeney and first-year guard Jake Sussberg saw their first minutes in the second half. All five cashed in on the first points of their collegiate careers, with Whitfield and Hammond leading the pack with six points each.
“There were definitely good moments out there by all the freshmen today for their first collegiate games,” Hicke said. “The whole team has a lot of faith in them.”
The Tigers will look to bounce back when they return to Jadwin Gym for their home opener against Bucknell University (2–0, 0–0 Patriot League) on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
“Bucknell has a very good team,” Henderson said. “I feel fortunate that we get to play again so soon.”
Jordan Halagao is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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