Howie Levy jokingly called it "getting the monkey off his back," but for the first time in five meetings over the past five years the Mercer County Community College finally defeated Princeton' J.V.
Leading 33-32 in the second half, the Vikings (6-3) went on a 12-0 run sparked by the play of sophomore center Filip Sekulic, who recently accepted a full scholarship at Chestnut Hill College.
Sekulic had eight straight during this stretch, including a soft baseline jumper, a two-handed slam and a wild finish after bumping off of Princeton's Bobby Garbade in mid-air.
While some late three point shooting from the Tigers' Ameer Elbuluk helped his team close the deficit in the final minutes, MCCC held on at the free throw line.
Princeton's best chance came on a contested three from Mike Washington, Jr. at the top of the arc with the score favoring Mercer 49-46 with less than 2:45 remaining.
Postgame audio from Howie Levy, a scoring breakdown for the Tigers, some additional notes and even a video montage can all be found after the jump.
As soon as the final buzzer sounded on Princeton's loss to Drexel, I knew that for my next statistical analysis I wanted to examine Ian Hummer's splits between first half and second half numbers through eight games.
Read on for details on how Hummer's opening frames in 2012-13 compare with what follows after intermission.
I'll use this space to also relay that Hummer shares the latest Ivy League Player of the Week honors with Wesley Saunders from Harvard.
princetonbasketball.com is happy to be able to offer discounted tickets to attend the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival on Saturday at the Barclays Center.
The event is a tripleheader, with Princeton's game against Fordham the opening match of a day that tips at 2:30 pm ET. St. John's will then play St. Francis before Michigan faces West Virginia.
Please use this link to save anywhere between $5-$15 on tickets. Make sure to use the offer code provided exclusively to site visitors.
It was a second straight less than attractive game for Georgetown (7-1) at home, but the Hoyas held Towson scoreless the final 4:37 to record a 46-40 victory.
Oregon State (5-2) made 15 of 21 threes on their way to an 85-54 win over Grambling State.
It is the second-best start to a season for Richmond (8-2) over the past 78 years. The Spiders escaped James Madison 83-82 in overtime.
In a physical contest Northwestern (7-3) fell 74-65 at home against Butler.
Sydney Johnson returns to Mercer County as Fairfield visits Rider this afternoon.
Around the Ivy League: It was a winless day for the conference as Yale (3-7) lost at New Hampshire by eight, Dartmouth (2-5) fell 67-56 at Holy Cross, Brown (3-5) dropped an 84-57 decision in South Bend to Notre Dame and Penn (2-7) never completely recovered from an opening 14-2 deficit against Villanova.
Photos from today's game courtesy Robert Solomon. Apparently no vacation rust for my dad, as I had a difficult time picking my favorite 20 images out of his shots.
It is a football cliché, but it is still applicable in Princeton’s 64-57 loss to Drexel on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym.
When Drexel was on offense during the second half, the Tigers’ defense could not get off the field.
A paucity of stops, a lack of defensive rebounding, a series of turnovers before moving the ball over half court and some possession-continuing fouls all led to Princeton’s fifth defeat in eight games.
It was a contest that the Tigers held the lead for the center 32 minutes of, but Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint implemented what he admitted was a rarely-used pressing, trapping defense to turn a 13 point first half deficit into his squad's third victory of the season.
Drexel scored the day’s final seven points, which broke the game’s second tie.
After pulling even on a pair of Will Barrett free throws with 2:32 to go, the Tigers would not score again.
Damion Lee - who paced the Dragons with a game-high 21 points - took advantage of a defensive lapse to convert a three point shot from the top of the arc and send his team in front on the visitors' next possession.
“We lost our way once again at the end of the game,” head coach Mitch Henderson said.
Ian Hummer had 14 of his 19 in the first 20 minutes. Clay Wilson added 12 off the bench and Will Barrett totaled 10.
The Dragons shot 12-19 after intermission (63.2%) and grabbed offensive rebounds on five of their seven misses. This led to a remarkable 19-4 differential on the glass.
A full recap and postgame audio from Henderson and Hummer can be found after the jump.
Today's Game:Drexel (2-6 / 0-0) vs. Princeton (3-4 / 0-0) Location: Jadwin Gym - Princeton, NJ Time: 2:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 8-2. Last meeting:Drexel 64 Princeton 60 - 12/10/12.
Drexel
Princeton
0-2
Home Record
0-2
1-2
Away Record
3-2
1-2
Neutral Record
0-0
261
RPI
156
131
Sagarin
97
110
Pomeroy
87
65.4
Points / Game
57.7
69.2
Points Allowed / Game
57.4
.434
FG%
.424
.755
FT%
.673
.356
3PT FG%
.346
33.4
Rebounds / Game
30.9
10.9
Off. Rebounds / Game
8.9
+3.0
Rebounding Margin
-0.8
12.0
Assists / Game
14.4
14.8
Turnovers / Game
15.3
1.6
Blocks / Game
2.4
Lee: 17.5
Points
Hummer: 14.4
McCoy: 7.8
Rebounds
Hummer: 6.0
Massenat: 5.0
Assists
Hummer: 4.9
Ruffin: 0.9
Steals
Bray: 2.6
Ruffin: 0.9
Blocks
Hummer: 1.0
Ruffin: .519
FG% (Min: 10 FGA)
Connolly: .500
Allen: .938
FT% (Min: 10 FTA)
Koon: .900
Allen: .529
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTA)
Barrett: .500
Towson vs. Georgetown - 12:00 pm ET
Grambling State vs. Oregon State - 4:00 pm ET - Pac-12 Network
James Madison vs. Richmond - 7:00 pm ET
Butler vs. Northwestern - 8:00 pm ET - Big Ten Network
Yale vs. New Hampshire - 1:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Holy Cross - 4:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Notre Dame - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN3
Villanova vs. Penn - 8:00 pm ET - NBCSN
Talk about the Tigers' return to Jadwin in the forum.
The Trentonian previews today's game and the Full-Court Press adds additional quotes from the same conversation with Mitch Henderson.
I ran an article welcoming Dan Mavraides to his new team through Google Translate.
Fairfield (4-5) fell in their conference opener to Canisius, 67-55.
Howie Levy's Mercer (5-3) team went into the Palestra and shut down the Penn J.V., 56-41. Mustafa el Amin had 18 for the victorious Vikings.
Princeton returns to Jadwin Gym tomorrow afternoon and Know! Your! Foe! returns one day prior to preview the Drexel Dragons.
Joining the site to answer my questions is a familiar name for regular readers, philly.com's Jonathan Tannenwald (commemorated via statue above). While Jonathan isn't on the basketball beat as much as he had been in years gone by, he's still a superb point person when you want details on any of Philadelphia's "City Six" teams.
My questions and JT's answers follow after the jump.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. I'd love to talk with you.
Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met at Jadwin Gym earlier today to tape the latest installment of their weekly interview series.
Henderson and Solomon discussed a broad variety of topics this time out including a detailed breakdown of Princeton's drastically different visits to Wagner and Kent State, T.J. Bray's penchant for steals this season, what was out of character versus the Seahawks and what that loss taught Henderson about his team, the recently improved defense and if Denton Koon's backcourt length is a possible cause of this improvement and a conversation Henderson had with Ian Hummer before concluding with a preview of Saturday's home game against Drexel.
This exclusive Q&A available after the jump is 16:00+ in length. You can catch up on all of this season's discussions here.
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
