On one of the chilliest days of the new year, men’s basketball (8–15 overall, 4–4 Ivy League) traveled down I-95 to take on the Penn Quakers (11–10, 4–4) for the second time this season. The Tigers fell short 61–60 after clawing back from a deficit as large as 12.
After narrowly pulling out a win over the Quakers at home in January, Princeton surrendered its first loss since 2018 to its historic rival. With the loss, the Orange and Black dropped to 4–4 in Ivy League play, tied with three other teams for third place in the league.
“Great opportunity to get a road win, and there’s a lot of basketball left,” Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 said after the game. “We’re right in the mix, we’ve got to stay positive.”
Sophomore forward Malik Abdullahi corralled the opening tip in the backcourt, but the Tigers failed to convert on the opening possession.
The first four minutes of the affair displayed shaky offense as the two teams struggled to find a rhythm. The Tigers settled for multiple shot violations as they trailed 6–5 at the first media timeout.
After the break, sophomore guard Jack Stanton hit a three-pointer, his only points of the day. Stanton, the Tigers’ third leading scorer of the season, would only play six minutes as he dealt with a lower body injury.
Just six minutes into the fixture, junior guard Dalen Davis picked up his second foul, putting the Tigers’ guard play at jeopardy, with Stanton shortly leaving the game for good. Davis, dealing with foul trouble for the rest of the game, would still play 30 minutes, but with limited flexibility on defense.
The Tigers and Quakers traded buckets for the next ten minutes, heading into the four minute media timeout with the Quakers ahead by three.
Penn made their push in the final minutes of the half. Quakers forward Michael Zanoni scored his only five points of the game as part of a 9–0 Quaker run.
After four Tiger free throws broke the scoring drought, an offensive rebound and buzzer-beating putback from Penn center Dalton Scantlebury put the Quakers up 35–25 heading into the break.
Poor shooting plagued both teams as three-pointers were hard to come by in the first half. The Tigers only managed one long-distance shot and went a subpar 32 percent on the game while the Quakers shot just 28 percent from three.
Penn continued to dominate the paint to start the half as the Tigers and Quakers went back and forth. Abdullahi, who ended the game with 12 points, mustered back-to-back buckets to bring the Tigers within two scores.
Soon thereafter, players on both teams got into foul trouble. Roberts, Penn’s season leading scorer who finished with zero points, picked up his fourth foul with 15 minutes left. Not long after, Stanton and Davis both picked up their third fouls, leaving the Tigers with no true point guard on offense. Davis returned when junior guard Jackson Hicke picked up his third foul, before Davis picked up his fourth after being posted up on a switch with 11:30 left.
After their game-long dominance on the inside, Penn finally began to miss paint shots.
With six minutes left in the contest, junior forward Jacob Huggins went on a personal 6–0 run to bring the score to 50–46, the closest it had been since 25–21.
After a foul, Penn went in the bonus, allowing the Tigers to get more aggressive on offense, earning them trips to the free throw line. As they took advantage on the offensive end, the Tigers defense, after a lackluster first half, became tenacious, forcing turnovers that gave them a chance to tie with just under two minutes left.
A 15-footer from Abdullahi hit nothing but net, cutting the lead to one. But then Penn’s sophomore standout AJ Levine, who has blown up in conference play averaging 12.6 points in his last nine games compared to 3.7 in the first 11, found an open man in the corner to send the Quakers back up by four as both teams began to find their touch from deep for the late game.
Not too long after, Davis hit a step back three from the left wing to bring the deficit back to one with a minute left.
Next possession, Roberts went at Abdullahi, who managed to force him into a contested 7-foot jumper that he missed.
Abdullahi forced a tough Penn shot a little bit later on, causing a miss and giving Princeton a chance to walk away victorious. Davis slowly brought the ball down the floor, setting up an isolation against Levine for the game. Notably, Henderson opted not to call a timeout and instead let the junior leader take the final shot.
With 11 seconds left, Levine poked the ball a few feet away, forcing Davis to retreat to retrieve it. After a quick move, Davis drove left, stopping at the left elbow. Levine stuck with him as he tried a pivot left and a pump fake. With no dribble and nowhere left to go, Davis threw up a fade-away that bounced off the front of the rim.
And, just like that, Penn won their first game against Princeton in eight years and one day. Now, Princeton’s all-time record against Penn is tied at 127 games apiece.
The Orange and Black take on Cornell (11–10, 4–4) on Feb. 13 at Jadwin with the hope to stay above .500 in conference play.
Harrison Blank is a senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Julian Hartman-Sigall is Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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