Home of the Roundball Poets
Princeton continued its recent hot streak Monday night, winning its fourth straight and ninth of 12 overall by dispatching the Retrievers of UMBC at Jadwin Gym, 89-77.
Although Princeton (9-3) was in charge, UMBC (5-5) was very much in it until the final six minutes.
Prior to the start of this afternoon’s game at Lafayette, Princeton coach Mitch Henderson was asked to assess his team’s 7-3 start to this season.
“If you told me we would win seven of the first 10, I would have been pleased, to say the least,” Henderson replied.
His team would reach 8-3 after dispatching Fran O’Hanlon’s Leopards, 81-63. Lafayette dropped to 2-8, including losses to Penn, Cornell, and the Tigers. Columbia’s woes are clearly shown by its loss at home to Lafayette, 73-50.
This game was valuable to the Tigers for several reasons, but none was more important than the fact that they would have to find a way to win without much offensive production from their go-to guy this season, Tosan Evbuomwan. When the opening tip was easily controlled by the Leopards’ Neal Quinn, a 7-foot junior from Allendale, N.J., Henderson realized that Evbuomwan might have his hands full with an opponent 4 feet taller and 40 pounds heavier.
Mitch Henderson’s Tigers squared off against the Bucknell Bison Tuesday night at Jadwin Gym. The Tigers entered the game as solid 12.5-point favorites. Bucknell came in at 2-7, a dreary start to the season. They lost at home to Penn by five points and on the road to Hofstra by 19.
The Tigers have been up and down of late, struggling somewhat on defense. But Henderson believes the stirring overtime win last week against Drexel may serve as a tonic for his club.
In hoping for something of breather, Henderson got his wish tonight as the Tigers cruised to an 82-69 win.
Princeton seized the momentum early and held it throughout the game. Princeton established a double-digit lead in the first five minutes, allowing Henderson to use an entire platoon of players. Before the proceedings ended, he would put 16 bodies on the floor. The first half ended with the Tigers firmly grasping a 13-point lead, 45-32.
Heading into Saturday afternoon’s matchup with the Drexel Dragons at Jadwin Gym, Princeton coach Mitch Henderson was perplexed.
His club’s most recent outings against Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson and Hofstra have raised a degree of concern after a surprisingly good start to the season. His team’s defense has been too generous, yielding 76 in a road loss at Monmouth, 79 in a close win at home against FDU and 81 in a loss at Hofstra. The Hofstra loss was particularly galling because the Tigers surrendered 50 in the first half.
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – A furious second-half comeback by Princeton, cutting a 16-point deficit to one with less than a minute to go in regulation, fell just short, as the Tigers lost to Hofstra, 81-77, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex Wednesday evening.
The big question facing the Tigers as they squared off against in-state rival Fairleigh Dickinson was the status of Tosan Evbuomwan, their most reliable front court player. Tosan missed Princeton’s last outing a loss at Monmouth on Thanksgiving Eve, due to injury. His presence might have spelled the difference in a winnable game lost in the final 10 minutes of play.
Henderson had scouted FDU, who came into Jadwin having lost all four of their starts this season. His conclusion was that his team would have to play very well, and certainly better than it had in West Long Branch, if it was to succeed against a gritty FDU squad.
Evbuomwan was able to play and, in fact, turned in one of his better performances tonight. As it turned out the Tigers needed career scoring highs from three players, including Evbuomwan, to hold off FDU, 89-79, in a very exciting college basketball game.
The Princeton men traveled across the country to meet Oregon State, winner of last year’s Pac-12 championship and Elite 8 darling. Tiger fans recall the six-year tenure Craig Robinson had as head coach in Corvallis.
The Tigers held the lead for most of Sunday afternoon’s contest. In the end, Princeton managed to survive a late run by the home team, which came from 11 points down in the final five minutes to get within one.
Powered by the best all-around game in the career of senior guard Ethan Wright, Princeton managed an 81-80 victory.
The Princeton Tigers concluded a very busy opening week of the new season tonight, entertaining the Red Foxes of Marist and coach John Dunne. It was the fourth contest for coach Mitch Henderson’s club in eight days. Tiger fans will remember Dunne from his days at St. Peter’s whom he coached in a game played at Dillon Gym, the only time the old gym was used for Division I men in over 50 years.
Princeton expected an exciting game. Marist lost its season opener in overtime against American, which is coached by former Tiger Mike Brennan, On November 12, the Foxes thrashed Ivy foe Columbia by 15.
The Tigers put together their best outing thus far, administering a sound beating to the visitors, 80-61. Although the Tigers (3-1) posted four players in double figures the real story tonight was written at the defensive end. Princeton’s harassing swarms, featuring a lot of doubling down low was reminiscent of the 2017 Ivy champions. The Foxes (1-2) were forced to settle for a lot of uncomfortable shots. For the evening Marist shot 36% from the floor and 30% from deep. These percentages were higher in the second half when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Announcers and writers around the nation focused a lot of attention to the 600-plus days between games for the Ivy League. While many expected the teams to be a bit rusty out of the gates, the Ancient Eight acquitted itself quite well in the season’s first week.
Thirteen of the league’s 16 teams had at least one win, with the Princeton and Columbia women notching three victories each. The Brown men almost upset No. 19 UNC without their top player, and the Princeton men just missed out on winning the Asheville Championship.
Check out some of the highlights from a very successful and welcome week of Ivy hoops:
George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps two huge wins for Princeton Friday: the women’s 76-56 victory at Delaware in junior guard Julia Cunningham’s best game as a Tiger and the men’s 66-62 triumph over South Carolina in the opening game of the Asheville Championship with a stellar performance from junior forward Tosan Evbuomwan: