At the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational, Princeton men’s basketball (3–6 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) faced a steady stream of mid-major tests and came up just short again and again, leaving with three losses from three games.
The Tigers lost to the Bradley Braves (4–4, 0–0 Missouri Valley Conference) 88–64 on Monday before a narrow 79–75 loss to Temple (4–3, 0–0 American) the following day. The Orange and Black closed out the tournament with another narrow loss 79–74 to Vermont (5–3, 0–0 America East).
Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 and the squad will have a chance to avenge their losses to both Temple and Vermont on December 22 in Philadelphia and December 30 at Jadwin Gym, respectively.
Notably, Princeton was without junior guard Dalen Davis, their leading scorer and primary ballhandler, forcing the Tigers to turn to an inexperienced bench. Davis injured his right ankle in the final minutes of the Tigers’ Nov. 20 win over Northeastern.
Against Bradley, the teams traded buckets early. Sophomore Jack Stanton was the star for the Tigers, scoring 16 first half points, including a four point play that put Princeton up 26–20. But despite his heroics, the Tigers trailed 40–34 at the break after a 6–0 Bradley run to close the half. Nine second-chance points and tight defense on Bradley’s top scorer, guard Jaquan Johnson — held to just one point — kept the Tigers in the game.
However, the Tigers were unable to contain Johnson for long. With Bradley leading 45–39, Johnson took over, scoring 10 of the next 12 points to stretch the advantage to 55–41. This was followed by a string of buckets and assists by Bradley’s first-year guard Montana Wheeler. By the time Head Coach Brian Wardle subbed out Wheeler, the Braves were leading 83–61.
The Braves shot the lights out of the ball en route to a 88–64 win, connecting on 54.5 percent of their field goals and 46.7 percent from beyond the arc. Princeton also struggled to take care of the ball, finishing with 24 turnovers, the most against a D-I opponent since the 25 in their 2019 loss to Brown. Stanton failed to score in the second half, finishing with 16 points. Junior guard and captain Jackson Hicke added 15 points.
Against Temple, the Orange and Black got out to another strong start, led by Stanton and Hicke. Neither teams hesitated to shoot from deep, with the first nine shots of the game coming from beyond the arc. A triple from first-year guard Landon Clark put the Tigers up 22–12 to start.
The Owls continued to crawl back into the contest, trailing by one with under a minute remaining in the first half. At the end of the half, sophomore forward Malik Abdullahi connected on his first career triple to put Princeton up 36–32 heading into the locker room.
The turning point in the second half was a 10–0 Owls run that put them up 48–43 with 12:38 remaining in the game. In what has become a regular feature, Stanton converted a four point play to make it 53–52 Temple with 10:55 remaining.
Minutes later, a quick 6–0 run by Temple put them up 64–55. Despite Princeton’s best effort, they fell to the Owls 79–75. Hicke scored a career-high 22 points while Stanton added 18 points, but the Tigers struggled to find production from their thin bench, scoring just 11 bench points compared to 23 for the Owls.
Despite struggling from the charity stripe (68.3 percent), Temple was able to get to the free throw line 41 times against the Tigers compared to just 16 for Henderson’s team. Temple guard and former four star recruit Derrian Ford led his side with 21 points.
In the final game of the tournament, Princeton was unable to replicate the strong starts it had shown in the first two contests. Vermont built an early lead, leading by as much as 23 with just four minutes remaining in the first half. The Catamounts had 10 second chance points and 14 points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes. Still, the Tigers responded with a 6–0 run to close the half and carried that momentum into the opening minutes of the second.
Coming out of the locker room, the Tigers went on a 20–4 run to tie the game at 47 with 14:24 remaining. During that run, the Orange and Black connected on five triples, three courtesy of sophomore forward CJ Happy, who finished with a career-high 22 points.
Six straight points from Abdullahi gave Princeton its first lead of the game, 56–54, with just over 10 minutes remaining. Both teams continued to trade buckets as Henderson’s team held a slim 69–67 with just under four minutes left.
The turning point came with 1:50 remaining. Happy hit a layup but missed the free throw for the three-point play. On the other end, Vermont forward Gus Yalden converted a triple to tie the game. After a missed shot from Stanton, Yalden finished inside the paint in the ensuing possession to give the Catamounts the lead back.
Ending the game on an 8–0 run, Vermont came away with a 79–74 win. Vermont outrebounded Princeton 39 to 29 and outshot the Tigers from the field. The Tigers hit just four of their 12 free throw attempts, a theme present in all three games. Across the three games, the Tigers shot just 57.1 percent from the line (28-for-49).
The Tigers’ bench was outscored in all three games. Over three contests, they scored 41 points compared to 80 from their opponents. Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 and select players did not respond to repeated requests for comment in time for publication.
The schedule for the Tigers doesn’t get any easier, especially if Davis remains sidelined. Next up, the Tigers will head to Trenton for the third straight edition of the Jersey Jam at CURE Insurance Arena, where they will face Saint Joseph’s (3–3, 0–0 Atlantic 10). Princeton is 2–0 in the event after past wins over Duquesne and Rutgers.
The Hawks are coached by Steve Donahue, long familiar to Princeton fans from his nine seasons in charge at Penn, and are led by Trenton native Deuce Jones II, who is averaging 17.0 points per game.
Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor, senior Sports writer, and education director for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif. and typically covers breaking news and profiles. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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