Hosting Ivy League co-leader Yale last Saturday, the Princeton University men’s basketball team knew it needed a win to make it a three-horse race for the league title at the halfway point.
Entering the evening, Princeton stood at 4-2 in Ivy action while Yale and Harvard were tied atop the league at 6-1.
In the first 20 minutes of the contest, however, Princeton looked like an also ran, falling behind 11-0 and trailing 39-28 at halftime.
Addressing his team at intermission, Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson wasn’t looking for anything fancy.
“The message was really quite simple, there is no 11-point play,” said Henderson, whose team trailed 33-17 at one point in the first half.
“Let’s get it to eight at the 16-minute mark. We were trying to make some adjustments defensively. We said, look are they that much faster than us, what’s the deal here.”
Responding like champions, the Tigers started the half on a 26-7 run to take a 54-46 lead with 10:35 remaining in regulation.
“I am really proud of the way that we came back,” said Henderson. “I thought the start of the second half was great. I thought we were going to have to chip away and then all of a sudden we are tied at the 16 minute mark.”
In the view of Princeton sophomore forward Steven Cook, the rally came down to being tougher.
“We got off to a slow start, some shots didn’t fall and we weren’t playing great defense with them scoring 39 points in the first half,” said Cook.
“We talked about a lot of different things at halftime, we needed to maintain aggressiveness and toughness inside. The 1-3-1 (zone) definitely helped us with staying aggressive on defense. We just attacked on offense.”
But Princeton couldn’t maintain the lead as Yale responded with a 35-19 run over the last 10:20 of the contest to pull out an 81-73 victory.
“I think we are disappointed with that,” said Henderson, reflecting on the setback which left Princeton at 11-12 overall and 4-3 Ivy.
“College basketball is great because you are either going one way or another. We seem to be on a track where we are on the upswing and then we fall down. We are hurting a little bit but nobody is crying for us. We have three weeks and we have an opportunity to get better every day.”
Yale junior forward Justin Sears, a Plainfield, N.J. product, hurt Princeton all night, tallying 25 points and nine rebounds, including a huge sequence with just under 10 minutes left when he blocked a Hans Brase shot and scooped up the ball and went in for a layup and then hit a free throw after getting fouled on the drive.
“He is a really good player; in our league, he is so different,” said Henderson of Sears.
“He is long but fast; the way he got out on Hans’ shot and blocked it, that was a gigantic play. It was a six-point game and all of a sudden. it is three. He gets the and one.”
Princeton got a gigantic effort from junior forward Henry Caruso as he scored a career-high 25 points in a losing effort.
“I like our fight, I love that,” asserted Henderson who got 13 points from freshman guard Amir Bell with Cook adding 12. ”Henry has brought to our team what I want, which is don’t back down from the best players and guard them and play hard. That’s what he is through and through.”
Caruso, for his part, was frustrated that the team’s fighting spirit didn’t result in a victory.
“We just started with our defense, we started to get stops and really causing pressure on Yale,” said Caruso. “As the game went on we got a little bit flat, that was disappointing. We have to get ready for Dartmouth next Friday.”
In Henderson’s view, Princeton can still be a factor on the Ivy title race.
“Over the course of an 80-minute weekend, I think we are playing a lot of good minutes,” said Henderson, whose team plays at Dartmouth on February 20 and at Harvard a day later.
“We can’t have an 11-0 start, we can’t give up a 13-point lead at the end of games. (referring to a 68-60 loss at Cornell on February 7) We can score and we can defend. We show these things in stretches, the pieces are there. We just have to keep our heads up and keep working.”