Men’s basketball on brink of Ivy Madness elimination following loss at Brown

It’s been 18 years since Princeton men’s basketball (8–18 overall, 4–7 Ivy League) endured a season like this.

An 80–71 setback at Brown (9–15, 3–8) on Friday night pushed Princeton men’s basketball to the brink of Ivy Madness elimination and into uncharted territory under head coach Mitch Henderson ’98.

The Tigers now have their most losses of Henderson’s tenure and are tracking toward their worst season since 2008.

An early 14–0 first-half run gave Brown control, and after briefly surrendering the lead early in the second half, the hosts capitalized on Princeton’s turnovers to pull away for the win.

Junior guard/forward Jackson Hicke was a bright spot with 26 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore forward Malik Abdullahi added his fifth consecutive double-digit scoring performance.

“I think it honestly comes down to discipline on the defensive end,” Hicke told The Daily Princetonian. “I feel like we honestly scored the ball pretty well.”

Ahead of the game, junior forward Jacob Huggins was inserted into the starting lineup in place of sophomore forward CJ Happy, marking his fourth career start and second of the season. Happy had started his previous 34 games with the Orange and Black.

Head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 declined to comment on the change.

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Hicke got the scoring started in Providence, R.I. He and junior Dalen Davis scored two early triples to put the visitors up 10–4. After Happy put the Tigers ahead 14–11, it was all Brown. The hosts then went on their 14–0 run to take a 25–14 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.

The Tigers cut the deficit to five, trailing 42–37 at the break. Princeton had no answer for Brown guard Luke Paragon, who had a career high 18 points in the opening half.

For the Bears, it tied their highest-scoring first half against a Division I opponent this season. Brown shot 15-for-23 (65.2 percent) from the field and 5-for-10 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

After Brown took a 50–43 lead coming out of halftime, Princeton responded with an 8–0 run to go ahead 51–50 with 13:07 remaining, prompting a Brown timeout. The run gave Henderson’s squad its first lead since the 12:04 mark of the first half.

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Sophomore guard Peyton Seals scored two triples to cap off the 8–0 run for Princeton. Seals finished with a season-high 12 points and 15 minutes.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the lead lasted just 25 seconds, and they did not regain it for the remainder of the game. Coming out of the timeout, the Bears went on a 16–4 run to take a 66–55 lead.

The Tigers committed a string of bad passes and turnovers, leading to easy fast-break opportunities for the hosts. After just four first-half turnovers, Princeton had nine in the second half.

“They had a couple runs, one particular in the second half, where we turned the ball over a couple times in a row, and they scored consecutively and started to pull away when we had some momentum,” Hicke told the ‘Prince.’

“So just not being able to get shots up in those situations really hurt,” he added.

Despite cutting the lead to eight with three minutes remaining, Henderson gave first-year guard Jake Sussberg his first minutes of the night, opting to keep Davis out for the final 8:11 of the game.

Henderson declined to comment on the decision.

Davis finished with just seven points and one assist, shooting two-for-nine from the field and committing five turnovers as Brown held on for an 80–71 win. Bears forward Landon Lewis finished with 21 points, and Paragon added another 20.

“At the end of games, I gotta do a better job of closing it out and making plays for us to seal it,” Hicke said.

Princeton will face Harvard (14–10, 7–3) and Dartmouth (10–13, 4–6) at home next weekend with its season hanging in the balance.

“We got to take every practice and opportunity we have together seriously and get better,” Hicke said, noting that without any seniors, this is a group “that's going to play a lot more games together.”

Another loss would mathematically eliminate the Tigers from Ivy Madness contention, and even a 3–0 finish may not be enough to extend their season.

“Right now our mindset is [to] win out and make somebody else earn it over us,” Hicke said.

Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor emeritus and senior Sports writer 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.