Since the calendar moved forward, Princeton senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder has put together a stellar six game stretch.
It isn’t Schroeder’s job to score – his season high is eight points at George Washington, but few players steady their team and put their teammates in position to succeed like he does.
Georgetown (16-4) shot 71.7% from the floor for the game and was 15-18 from inside the arc in the second half, beating Duke, 89-77. Hoya Hoops has the postgame audio.
John Shurna’s career high 31 were not enough as Northwestern (14-7) fell by nine at Michigan State.
Princeton recruit Tom Noonan went for 20 in Penn Charter’s loss to Episcopal Academy.
Future Tiger Chris Clement had 22 as Stony Point fell to Cedar Park. There’s a video package of highlights available at this link.
Around the Ivy League: Cornell (18-3 / 4-0) sent a message by thoroughly dominating their showdown with Harvard (14-4 / 3-1) by 36. Columbia (7-11 / 1-3) topped Dartmouth (3-14 / 0-4) for their first conference win of the season. Penn (2-14 / 1-1) won at the buzzer in controversial fashion as Dan Monckton’s layup appears to have come well after time expired, giving the Quakers a 55-54 win over Brown (7-14 / 1-3).
John Thompson III’s 200th career victory took place in front of the President of the United States, who joined Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg on the Duke/Georgetown broadcast during the second half.
They referenced a game Kellogg played against Craig Robinson at Madison Square Garden, a 59-55 triumph for the Buckeyes in the 1981-82 season.
Postgame audio – Coach Sydney Johnson, Marcus Schroeder & Kareem Maddox:
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Yale cut a 10 point Princeton lead in half midway through the second half and was looking to crawl closer when Tiger coach Sydney Johnson made a personnel move he had not tried all night.
Johnson sent the senior center tandem of Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley on the floor together and Princeton was able to ride their shoulders on a 19-4 run that closed out the game after the Bulldogs had pulled even.
“Tough road game. Conference play. Just to have some experience out there helped us,†said Johnson after Princeton’s second straight Ivy win. “At the least we just kind of settled in. Things weren’t so new to us and so surprising because those guys have played a lot of time. It was effective this time around.â€
Buczak’s high arcing jumper from just inside the three point line sailed through the net as the shot clock expired to give the Tigers a 43-40 advantage and Marcus Schroeder – who finished the night with six assists and no turnovers – found Douglas Davis for three on the right wing after Buczak cleared out two Bulldog defenders on a wide downscreen. Buczak’s hesitation hook over Greg Mangano took the lead up to eight with 6:41 remaining.
Davis finished with a team best 13, but it was Princeton’s ability to post Buczak, Finley, Kareem Maddox and Ian Hummer that provided the Tigers with 22 points in the paint. Maddox had a solid game, scoring nine points off the bench on 4-5 shooting and all but icing the result when he sized up a baseline jumper off a Schroeder drive to make it a 52-43 game.
Princeton was 6-6 at the free throw line in the game’s final 1:13.
Alex Zampier, the Ivy League’s leading scorer entering Saturday was 4-11 off the the bench and did not make a three point shot. Zampier did not start the game because he “broke a team rule†according to Yale coach James Jones. He finished with 13 points and six turnovers.
Today’s Game:Princeton (10-5 / 1-0) vs. Yale (8-12 / 2-1) Location: John J. Lee Amphitheater – New Haven, CT Time: 6:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 139-81. Last meeting:Princeton 62 Yale 54 – 2/28/09.
Princeton
Yale
5-1
Home Record
4-3
5-4
Away Record
2-6
0-0
Neutral Record
2-3
140
RPI
295
148
Sagarin
283
140
Pomeroy
263
60.3
Points / Game
66.0
54.5
Points Allowed / Game
62.0
.424
FG%
.427
.728
FT FG%
.722
.355
3PT FG%
.300
29.7
Rebounds / Game
35.4
8.8
Off. Rebounds / Game
12.3
-1.6
Rebounding Margin
+0.5
12.1
Assists / Game
13.5
13.9
Turnovers / Game
14.8
3.3
Blocks / Game
4.7
Davis: 14.1
Points
Zampier: 18.1
Mavraides: 4.9
Rebounds
Sands: 6.0
Schroeder: 3.3
Assists
Braswell: 2.6
Schroeder: 2.2
Steals
Zampier: 2.7
Buczak: 0.9
Blocks
Mangano: 2.1
Finley: .581
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Davis: .514
Schroeder: .857
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Zampier: .861
Saunders: .486
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Morgan: .385
Duke vs. Georgetown – 1:00 pm ET – CBS
St. Louis vs. Richmond – 2:00 pm ET – The Comcast Network
Salem vs. Mercer – 3:00 pm ET
Northwestern vs. Michigan State – 6:00 pm ET – Big Ten Network
UCLA vs. Oregon State – 7:30 pm ET
Denver vs. Arkansas State – 9:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Brown – 7:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Columbia – 7:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. Cornell – 7:00 pm ET
Denver looks to stop a recent slide at Arkansas State.
Princeton recruit Ben Hazel scored 21 as Good Counsel upended O’Connell, 63-59.
Future Tiger Tom Noonan had eight for Penn Charter, who defeated Haverford School by 10.
Around the Ivy League: Cornell (17-3 / 3-0) shut down Dartmouth (4-13 / 0-3) to a 71-37 count. Harvard (14-3 / 3-0) kept pace, pushing aside Columbia (6-11 / 0-3) by 29. Yale (8-12 / 2-1) scored the first 11 points of a 61-48 win over Penn (1-14 / 0-1).
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Postgame audio – Douglas Davis & Ian Hummer:
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When your starting center and his backup both pick up two personal fouls in the first 3:27 of the game, a one-sided blowout isn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise is that the team hampered by foul trouble were the ones that dominated play.
With bigs Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley on the bench, Princeton used an unselfish offensive attack and a pressure defense that bothered Brown’s guards before they could get into their sets – opening the game on an 18-7 run and building a 40-18 halftime advantage – cruising to the 63-46 final.
The score of the Ivy opener wasn’t even that close. The Bears did not get within 17 points in the second half until the game’s final basket.
“That’s what we do when we’re at out best,” said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson after opening his third consecutive Ivy campaign with a victory. “We’re trying to learn from some of our mistakes and I think that showed a little bit tonight.”
Douglas Davis scored all of his game-best 16 in the first 20 minutes, set up four times behind the arc by his teammates. Ian Hummer bullied for 10 down low, eight after intermission.
Matt Mullery, the interior presence for Brown who came into Friday’s game with a lofty stat line went 2-8 from the floor and finished with 10.
“2-8 – I didn’t know that,” a surprised Johnson remarked afterwards. “He causes a lot of problems for people. I didn’t know that we were able to do that. He’s really good, so I guess we caught him on an off night, because he’s really, really good.”
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