Four players scored in double figures for South Carolina as the Gamecocks handed Princeton a defeat by the largest margin of victory for a visiting team in the 40 year history of Jadwin Gym.
Devan Downey had 22 points, seven steals and six assists to pace USC. Zam Fredrick added 20 in the 84-58 win.
Princeton had clawed their way through intense early pressure to take a 24-23 lead with 5:58 left in the first half on a Zach Finley layup created by a penetrating Jason Briggs.
The Tiger advantage lasted all of 16 seconds as Evaldas Baniulis' scooping drive under the extended arm of Kareem Maddox would begin a 15-0 run that concluded the half.
“We got some shots that didn’t go down [during the South Carolina run],” said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. “We went through a woeful stretch there. They’re playing faster and their pace overwhelmed us. If we were able to continue to make some baskets, it might have been a different picture.”
Nick Lake's 14 points led a balanced, surgical Princeton attack as the Tigers defeated Fordham 73-61 on Thanksgiving Eve.
Lake was one of three Tigers in double figures, joined by center Pawel Buczak's career-high 13 and a 11 for freshman Doug Davis. Kareem Maddox added eight points and seven rebounds.
While Davis reached double figures for the fourth straight time, Wednesday's game was more than just The Doug Davis Show.
"We had great contributions," said Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson. "Doug is a nice player, but it is definitely going to be more than him and it has to be if we expect to do anything this year."
Princeton anatomized Fordham's man-to-man defense, shooting a season-best 54.3% from the field.
Following Princeton's loss to Maine on Wednesday night, Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson felt that despite never trailing in the second half, his team did not have a good understanding that they were controlling the game.
Four days later, in their first road contest of the season, Princeton methodically turned a one point disadvantage at halftime into a 17 point lead as they took complete control of the afternoon and never let up in a 55-43 victory. It was the Tigers' first win on the road since December 30th, 2006.
"They understood," said Johnson of his team. "I thought we played to our strengths. It is a good step forward for us considering the lack of experience. To understand who we are and try to execute knowing who were are and to get the shots and how we need to defend - it's good."
"I have an emotional connection to these guys for a number of different reasons and to see them achieve the way they did tonight, we'll take it and run with it."
Freshman Doug Davis was high man for the Tigers for the third straight game, scoring 19 points on an efficient 8-11 shooting from the floor.
"Coach expects a lot out of us," said Davis. "When each person goes in they have to be ready to play, and I think we really did that tonight. We relaxed, we knew what we were doing, we knew our plays. We just had to execute and we did that."
Princeton led for most of the night, but Maine led when it mattered most - at the final buzzer.
The visiting Black Bears rallied from seven points down with six minutes remaining to force overtime and then held off the Tigers in the extra frame for a 58-55 victory.
Maine improved to 3-0 on the season with the win while Princeton fell to 0-2.
"Our inexperience showed," said Princeton coach Sydney Johnson after the tough loss. "I don't think that we had a good understanding that we were controlling the game. It is painful to have to learn this way."
Freshman Doug Davis was the Tigers' high man for the second straight outing, scoring 14 points on 6-12 shooting. Dan Mavraides added a career-best 13 off the bench, 11 in the first half.
For Maine, Kaimondre Owes recorded 11 and Junior Bernal tallied 10. The Black Bears' leading scorer, Mark Socoby, was 0-6 from the floor and did not score until OT.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson & Doug Davis:
The 40th season of basketball at Jadwin Gym got off to an exciting start on Friday night, as Princeton dropped a 55-53 decision to Central Michigan at the wire.
Like many first games of a campaign across college basketball, the energy level and eagerness was high on both sides, the play heavy on mistakes throughout and the questions moving forward numerous.
What no-one could have expected was Tiger newcomer Doug Davis scoring the most points by a freshman making their debut in Princeton basketball history. The diminutive Davis dropped 25 on 10-21 shooting, connecting four times from the new three point distance and blazing by defenders into the paint. This new benchmark was accompanied by four steals, two assists and six turnovers as Davis played all 40 minutes.
You have to rewind to Bill Bradley's first game in 1962 to find an initial Tiger total that was higher than Davis' dynamic performance. Bradley scored 28 points versus Lafayette during the curtain-raiser of his sophomore season.
Princeton held its 2008 Media Day on Thursday afternoon. Coach Sydney Johnson and select Tigers spoke to princetonbasketball.com about the upcoming season. These interviews are exclusive to our site. If you're interested in inside access like this all season long, please consider becoming a donor.
Photos from today by Stephen Goldsmith can be seen after the jump.
The Ivy League held its first Men's Basketball Preseason Media Teleconference this morning. This is the first of three events the league has planned this season, with all eight coaches answering questions from media.
The portion of today's Q&A with Princeton coach Sydney Johnson is available above. This will also serve as a test of our new audio streaming system, replacing past seasons' much-disliked embedded RealPlayer files! An mp3 of the full event should be available on the Ivy League web site later this afternoon.
The second of these teleconferences will take place in mid-January.
Georgetown won the marathon, but Pittsburgh won the sprint.
The Panthers became the first seven seed to slug through all four days of the Big East Tournament, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds in a 74-65 win over the Big East regular season champion Hoyas.
Ronald Ramon scored a team-best 17 points in the 100th victory for Pittsburgh's senior class. Tournament Most Outstanding Player Sam Young recorded 16 points and DeJuan Blair added 10 along with 10 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass.
Georgetown center Roy Hibbert had 17 in the defeat, classmate Jonathan Wallace adding 12.
One minute into Georgetown's Big East semifinal matchup with West Virginia, Hoya center Roy Hibbert picked up an offensive foul giving a shoulder to his defender in the post. After going scoreless in 14 minutes of play before fouling out against Villanova on Thursday afternoon, was Hibbert in for another long game?
"For a little second I was like 'aw man,'" admitted the 7'2" Hibbert, "but the coaches tell me to go out there and play my game."
Georgetown set a school record and tied a Big East Tournament record with 17 made three point shots, and the Hoyas exploded for runs of 14-2 and 14-3 in the second half as they pulled away from Villanova for a 82-63 victory in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
West Virginia awaits Georgetown on Friday night in the tournament semi-finals.
With Roy Hibbert suffering through possibly the worst game of his collegiate career (zero points, four turnovers and five fouls in 14 minutes) the rest of Georgetown's lineup more than made up for the absence of their 7'2" center. "To say Roy had a rough time getting in a rhythm would be an understatement," observed Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. "The nature of our team is – when any particular guy is struggling we have other people who can step up and our team is confident in everyone."
Jessie Sapp knocked down six three pointers and scored a game-high 23 points. DaJuan Summers hit three times from outside on his way to 19. Jonathan Wallace scored 19 of his 20 points in the first half, connecting three times early from behind the arc as Georgetown opened up a quick 12-4 lead.
The 2007-08 Princeton basketball season came to an end on Tuesday night with a sloppy, listless 60-47 loss to Penn at Jadwin Gym. Princeton finished the season with a program-worst 6-23 record, 3-11 in Ivy League play.
Freshman Jack Eggleston recorded a game-high 15 points for the Quakers, who had three players in double figures.
Center Zach Finley, who missed Princeton's previous two games with an ankle injury, returned to the floor versus Penn, scoring 13 points off the bench. Jason Briggs added 10 along with a career-best eight rebounds and Noah Savage tallied 10 in his final collegiate contest.
Cornell had just completed a perfect 14-0 run through the Ivy League, so what were Princeton co-captains Kyle Koncz and Noah Savage doing in the Big Red locker room?
"We just congratulated them," Koncz explained. "They're a great team and they had a great season, so you have to pay your respects to their team and wish them luck in the tournament."
"As a player, you're frustrated, because a 14-0 season is what you dream of here," Koncz added. "That's what you want to do. You have to be a man and step up and congratulate someone who did it and competed hard every night and did something that's very hard to do. If you don't pay your respect to them and tell them good luck, then I think that's saying something about you."
Princeton played Cornell even for the first 32 minutes of Saturday night's meeting at Jadwin Gym.
Consecutive three point shots by Louis Dale turned a one possession game into a 57-48 Cornell lead as the Big Red pulled away for a 71-64 victory in their final regular season contest before the NCAA tournament.
Louis Dale scored a game-high 21 points in the victory, 17 in the final 20 minutes. Ryan Wittman had 16 points and Jason Hartford added 15 for the Big Red.
princetonbasketball.com was founded on April 28th, 1998 in an attempt to provide fans of the Princeton Tigers and Ivy League basketball with the best on-line source for up-to-date news and information. We have since expanded to launch a companion site, Georgetown Basketball News.
As these sites have continued to grow we have increased our coverage to include additional teams with Princeton connections - the Richmond Spiders, Denver Pioneers, Oregon State Beavers, Fairfield Stags and Mercer County Community College Vikings - plus former Tigers playing professional baseball and basketball all over the world. This site is not directly affiliated with the Friends of Princeton Basketball, Princeton University or the Princeton athletic department.
Sun. 11/10 vs. Florida A&M
Sat. 11/16 at Butler
Wed. 11/20 vs. Lafayette
Sat. 11/23 at Rice
Tue. 11/26 vs. George Mason
Sat. 11/30 at Bucknell
Sat. 12/7 vs. FDU
Wed. 12/11 at Rutgers
Sat. 12/14 at Penn State
Fri. 12/20 vs. Portland*
Sat. 12/21 vs. Pacific*
Tue. 12/31 vs. Kent State
Sat. 1/4 at Liberty
Sat. 1/11 at Penn
Sun. 1/26 vs. Kean
Fri. 1/31 at Harvard
Sat. 2/1 at Dartmouth
Fri. 2/7 vs. Columbia
Sat. 2/8 vs. Cornell
Fri. 2/14 at Brown
Sat. 2/15 at Yale
Fri. 2/21 vs. Dartmouth
Sat. 2/22 vs. Harvard
Fri. 2/28 vs. Yale
Sat. 3/1 vs. Brown
Fri. 3/7 at Cornell
Sat. 3/8 at Columbia
Tue. 3/11 vs. Penn
2,503 - B. Bradley, 1962-65
1,625 - I. Hummer, 2009-13
1,550 - D. Davis, 2008-12
1,546 - K. Mueller, 1987-91
1,451 - P. Campbell, 1959-62
1,441 - C. Robinson, 1979-83
1,428 - B. Earl, 1995-99
1,365 - B. Scrabis, 1985-89
1,321 - G. Petrie, 1967-70
1,292 - H. Haabestad, 1952-55
1,277 - G. Lewullis, 1995-99
1,239 - B. Taylor, 1970-72
1,207 - S. Goodrich 1994-98
1,133 - F. Sowinski, 1975-78
1,130 - R. Hielscher, 1991-95
1,122 - C. Thomforde, 1966-69
1,099 - T. Manakas, 1970-73
1,090 - J. Wallace, 2001-05
1,088 - C. Belz, 1956-59
1,079 - B. Hauptfuhrer, 1973-76
1,076 - B. Roma, 1976-79
1,071 - C. Mooney, 1990-94
1,064 - A. Hyland, Jr., 1960-63
1,062 - L. Brangan, 1957-60
1,057 - A. Hill, 1973-76
1,054 - D. Mavraides, 2007-11
1,044 - S. Johnson, 1993-1997
1,031 - J. Hummer, 1967-70
1,010 - W. Venable, 2001-05
