Executive Editor for Sports Vikram Rao '11 and Associate Editor for Sports Gabe Debenedetti '12 discuss the weekend in sports during their farewell to On the Prowl.
The more time senior forward and co-captain Kareem Maddox and the men’s basketball team have on the floor, the better they seem to play. In its third overtime game of the season, Princeton beat Tulsa 82-78 in the second extra period to win its fifth game in a row.
For 20 minutes on Friday, it seemed as if both rims at Jadwin Gymnasium were four feet wide. The women’s basketball team and its opponent, Navy, both made 60 percent of their shots in the first half — an unlikely shootout for two teams that entered the game with top-30 defenses in the nation.
The wrestling team produced mixed results this weekend, capturing its first victory of the season against George Mason University but falling to Rutgers in a complete rout on Saturday at Rutgers before returning home to face Rider at home in Dillon Gymnasium.
The women’s basketball team will meet Navy tonight at Jadwin Gymnasium in a non-league clash. Although the Midshipmen are coming straight off of a win against Mount St. Mary’s, the Tigers have momentum of their own. Princeton, which has gone 5-2 so far this season, will expect to win tonight.
The wrestling team will be greatly challenged this weekend as it looks to earn its first win of the season. The Tigers will head over to Piscataway, N.J., where they will take the mat against cross-state rivals Rutgers and George Mason University on Saturday.
Coming into the season, the men’s basketball team planned to ride the stellar play of its guards in order to make up for the lack of a clear playmaker among the team’s frontcourt. Almost 10 games in, though, Princeton’s highest scorer and star player has not been either senior guard and team co-captain Dan Mavraides or junior guard Doug Davis. Sophomore forward Ian Hummer, fresh off of winning Ivy League Player of the Week honors, surprisingly leads the Tigers (6-3) with more than 15 points per game.
After a home split last weekend against conference opponents Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the men’s hockey team will play host to University of Massachusetts Lowell (2-12-2) on Friday and Saturday at Baker Rink. The Tigers (6-5 overall, 6-3 ECAC Hockey) have played Lowell five times over the last couple of years, losing their first four matchups against the River Hawks but earning a 3-2 victory in their most recent competition. Sophomore Eric Meland carried the team in that effort, scoring two goals for the Tigers.
With regained confidence, the women’s hockey team (4-10-1 overall, 4-6-1 ECAC Hockey) is looking forward to hosting a two-game series against Syracuse (8-7-2) today and Saturday. Last weekend, the Tigers fell to Yale 2-1 but came back the next day to beat Brown with a decisive 4-0 victory. Defeating Brown ended a four-week stretch without a win for the Tigers. In the Brown game, the Tigers were finally able to convert for a goal on their power play, something they have been struggling with all season. The team was also pleased that it was able to capitalize on its five-on-five opportunities. Princeton is currently in sixth place in the ECAC Hockey.
While most students are counting down the days until they can return home for winter break, the men’s and women’s track and field teams are preparing for their home opener at the Indoor New Year’s Invitational on Saturday in Jadwin Gymnasium. Eleven other schools will be competing, including in-state rivals Rider, Rutgers and The College of New Jersey.
The men’s basketball team cannot avoid drama. On Wednesday, favored Princeton took a 15-point lead over Monmouth but nearly gave it all back in the second half. Though the visitors had a chance to tie the game with one second left, the Tigers (6-3) held on for their fourth straight victory, 64-61.
The NFL’s Darth Vader stands on the sideline in a gray New England Patriots hoodie. Like always, the sleeves are cut off at the elbows. Instead of a black helmet, he wears a headset. If he were not standing on the sideline, it would be easy to mistake him for a bum.
While it might be the most talented, recruited wrestling class that head coach Chris Ayres has seen during his tenure at Princeton, do not ask the wrestling team’s freshmen to go bowling.
One month into the 2010-11 women’s hockey team’s season, the ECAC Hockey league is shaping up to be competitive and unpredictable. While Cornell and Quinnipiac are currently dominating conference play, teams such as Dartmouth and Harvard are not far behind, making it clear that the parity in ECAC Hockey cannot be underestimated. Princeton (4-10-1 overall, 4-6-1 ECAC Hockey) currently sits in a fifth-place tie with Rennselaer. Both teams have totaled nine points, though the Tigers have played three more games. As the league readies itself for winter break before heading into the bulk of the 2010-11 season in January, here’s how things look:
Megan Charles is a junior on the women’s swimming and diving team. Charles competed on Trinidad and Tobago’s swimming and water polo national teams before coming to Princeton. After competing on both the water polo team and swimming team at Princeton for one year, she dropped water polo to focus solely on swimming. She is also a self-described “science nerd” who is majoring in chemistry.
Senior twins Peter and Philip Sopher’s most unmistakable characteristic is their laugh. Loud and boisterous, you can hear it from around the corner and know one or both of the twins are there. Though the twins can frequently be found joking around, when it comes to playing squash, the Sophers are serious.
Last season, the women’s basketball team went a perfect 14-0 in Ivy League play, clinching its first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament. This season, the Tigers hope to repeat atop the conference. Here’s how their Ancient Eight foes have fared in non-conference play so far:
The 2010-11 Toronto Raptors lost their best player in franchise history (Chris Bosh, of course) to free agency last summer. Their point differential is minus 2.7. The have a 2-8 record on the road. Their best player is named “Andrea,” although he does double as my favorite player to use in the new “NBA Jam” for Xbox (eight blocks and seven three-pointers don’t lie). At no point this season will this 8-13 team be considered one of the top teams in the league. Fine, right? Every league has bad teams. But if the NBA playoffs started today, the Raptors would face the Boston Celtics in the first round.
The men’s squash team hoped to celebrate the New Year as an undefeated team, and after its three-win weekend, the No. 3 Tigers (5-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) will do just that. They picked up the victories over tough opponents in towering fashion, losing only one individual match the entire weekend.
