Princeton loses a top player, then wins in dramatic fashion
1,000 words on Princeton beating Iona, plus one observation about the other six New Jersey teams in action on opening night.
PRINCETON – For about 28 minutes, Princeton was on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned punch in the face, a wakeup call that said it’s no longer October, it’s go time.
Then Xaivian Lee did something Princeton fans may see time after time this season: He took over the game.
Princeton trailed opening-night foe Iona 58-42 early in the second half and 60-46 with 14:28 to go, but Lee and the Tigers stormed back with a 16-0 run that erased a deficit caused by sloppy play and letting a very fast opponent outhustle them.
“We decided to play harder,” Mitch Henderson said. “I’m not trying to be cute, but we finally just played harder. We made some plays, but why are we waiting until the second half to play hard?”
Lee hit his first 3-pointer of the night to cut the deficit to four, Dalen Davis got a tough layup to roll in, and after Blake Peters came up with a steal, Lee tossed it ahead to Jacob Huggins in transition for a game-tying dunk.
Lee scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half, all of them coming inside the final 12 minutes and none more important than the two free throws he earned with three seconds on the clock. On a night when Princeton missed fully half of its free throws (11 of 22), Lee got both to fall, and the Tigers escaped 81-80.
It was the fourth time in the final 10 minutes that Lee provided some go-ahead points. I was fawning over this play, where Lee put James Patterson on skates with a quick stop, crossover and glide back behind the arc for a tiebreaking three; it’s the kind of move NBA scouts will fawn over too.
Lee had 27 points and six assists, and Caden Pierce went for 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Henderson played 11 guys at least one minute as he tested out different newcomers and lineup combos.
And while it’s fair to say some players down the bench will need to contribute more as the year goes on – more on Princeton’s depth in a minute – Lee and Pierce were hardly perfect, either. Pierce lost four turnovers, often looking out of sync with his teammates as the Gaels pressed, and Lee was critical of his own first half.
“I felt like personally for me, honestly, if we had lost that game it would’ve been completely on me,” Lee said. “Just because I was playing terribly in the first half, and then I was cramping up. I didn’t prepare myself well. So if you look at the game from a whole, it looked like we had a great win, but I think there is so much for us to improve on, honestly.”
Pierce echoed that sentiment when he said the Tigers “didn’t come ready to play,” and Henderson said in his opening statement that he told Iona coach Tobin Anderson his team played better than Princeton.
Whether it’s a one-time instance where the Tigers are still knocking rust off or a more worrying failure of preparation remains to be seen. We’ll learn more from Princeton’s Friday-Sunday swing against Duquesne (in Trenton) and at Northeastern. But Henderson later came around to the silver lining of it all.
“You know what, I think winning a game when you go 11-for-22 from the line and we play as poorly as we did on defense, that’s a good thing,” Henderson said. “Even though I’m mad – I’m not mad, but, that’s I think where we’ve been really good the last few years. We’ve figured out ways to get it done.”
Deven Austin on leave of absence
The biggest news of opening night, arguably for any team in New Jersey, came when we learned right around tipoff that Princeton junior Deven Austin was not currently with the team.
An athletics spokesperson said Austin is on a leave of absence for personal reasons. After the game, Henderson had little to add.
“Deven has taken a leave of absence from school. He won’t be with us,” Henderson said. “We wish him the best. About all I can say about it at the moment. We are all hoping he will return to school when he’s ready.”
It goes without saying that Austin’s well-being comes first and the personal reasons are hopefully something he can work through.
From a basketball perspective, Austin’s career at Princeton has been snakebitten and full of “what-ifs.” As a freshman in the same class as Pierce, Lee and Jack Scott, Austin was coming into his own in January and February of 2023, providing major scoring jolts off the bench, particularly in two wins over Cornell. A torn ACL cut his season short right before Princeton’s run to the Sweet 16, and it robbed him of his entire sophomore season.
On Oct. 14, Austin spoke to a few reporters at media day and said he was excited to help Princeton win games in whatever way he could. A healthy Austin would have given this year’s team better depth on the wing.
On opening night, Henderson rolled out a slightly surprising starting five of Dalen Davis, Jackson Hicke, Jacob Huggins, Pierce and Lee. Davis no doubt earned his starting role, but it came at the expense of Blake Peters, who began his senior year by coming off the bench.
“He played 33 minutes. He’s tough as nails,” Henderson said. “We know what we’re going to get out of Blake. He’s allowed me to do that in the first game, which is (play) Blake all the way through. We feel pretty good about the group that was out there at the end, which of course involves Blake.”
Huggins got the nod at the five and had a fascinating game. He was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field for 12 points, adding two rebounds and a block, and he played stellar interior defense on a few of the final Iona possessions. He also probably caused his coaches to pull some hair out by going 0-for-4 at the foul line.
Huggins, a sophomore who neither started a game nor played more than nine minutes against a D1 opponent last year, was on the floor for 24 minutes. Freshman Malik Abdullahi was active in his nine minutes at the five – six points, two rebounds and two steals.
New Jersey whiparound
Inspired by FS1’s Big East whiparound coverage of a glut of opening-night games that were happening roughly at the same time, here is one observation for each of the other six New Jersey teams in action Monday. We start, of course, with Seton Hall escaping an upset bid by Saint Peter’s, 57-53.
Seton Hall: The offense hurt to watch
I derive no pleasure in anybody’s pain, but just take in this exchange for a moment.
Does anything better encapsulate the current state of Seton Hall basketball? Frustrating enough that Shaheen Holloway probably punched a cinderblock wall at halftime, which in turn fired up Pirates fans all the more. They want so badly to cheer for this program and this coach, even if it’s a 40-minute slog to beat a MAAC team. Jerry Carino wrote it wonderfully: “Add it to the legend of a coach known for his uncommon intensity, even in a profession of alpha dogs.”
Seton Hall had nine made field goals and eight turnovers in the first half, delivering a mere 32-27 lead as Holloway and company went to the locker room. Then the Pirates shot 5-for-23 with six giveaways in the second half, producing most of its offense at the foul line. Prince Aligbe’s alley-oop layup (check it out here) was Seton Hall’s only made field goal of the last 9:11.
Postscript: Freshman Godswill Erheriene got the start at center but Yacine Toumi played the most minutes there. The five players Holloway relied on during a tight second half were Chaunce Jenkins (game-high 19 points), Dylan Addae-Wusu, Garwey Dual, Aligbe and Toumi.
Saint Peter’s: Bryce Eaton debuts
Eaton admittedly wasn’t on my radar before the season. He’s a redshirt freshman who spent last year at Central Michigan and did not play.
Not only did the 6-foot guard start for Saint Peter’s, he led them with 12 points and grabbed six rebounds. He was the only Peacock to make two threes, though it came on seven attempts.
In general, the Peacocks not only frustrated Seton Hall with good defense, but they made more baskets on fewer attempts, hit more 3-pointers and outrebounded the Pirates by three. The familiar problems cropped up – four players fouled out and they lost 19 turnovers – but the biggest surprise to me this morning isn’t that Saint Peter’s played Seton Hall close, but that it didn’t finish the job.
NJIT: A near-upset gets away
The Highlanders were all over the Quakers until the final 13 minutes, when Penn rallied from a 52-35 deficit and won 58-57 on a last-second free throw.
NJIT will want to have that one back. Last year’s America East Rookie of the Year Tariq Francis had 20 points (15 in the first half), though on an inefficient 6-of-20 shooting, plus three assists; backcourt partner Sebastian Robinson joined him with 20 points and nine boards. The defense was stout until Penn newcomer Ethan Roberts played more minutes in the second half after being hindered by foul trouble.
Monmouth: Abdi Bashir Jr. the new alpha
Bashir, a 6-foot-7 guard from Nebraska, had some nice moments during his freshman year, including a 21-point game (5-of-6 from three) against Lehigh. But when Xander Rice was on the Hawks, Bashir was rarely asked to hoist up a lot of shots. His career high in a game was 13.
So I’m sitting on media row at Jadwin Gym and I check out the Michigan State-Monmouth halftime box score, and this is the first thing I see:
Well now!
Bashir went on to finish with 20 points and three 3-pointers in 32 minutes, leading his team across the board in the 81-57 loss. (It didn’t help that Jack Collins’ shot was giving him fits – 0-for-10 on the night.) Transfer Madison Durr started at point guard and scored 12 points, as did unheralded freshman guard Justin Ray in just 15 minutes off the bench. We’ll have to see if Monmouth prefers the perimeter to this degree when it’s playing teams at its own level; the Spartans outscored the Hawks 48-8 in the paint, and new Monmouth centers Chris Morgan, Jordan Meka and Dok Muordar combined for zero points.
(Two bonus notes for Monmouth: Jaret Valencia did not play as he continues to rehab from hernia surgery, and before the game, the school announced a new extension for coach King Rice that keeps him through the 2028-29 season.)
FDU: Fire away, Dylan Jones
The Knights’ opener at Miami was always going to be a mismatch (final score: Miami 113-72), but their quick pace allowed them to show their stuff offense.
Terrence Brown had 18 points on an efficient 8-of-14, but the standout was Dylan Jones, a juco sharpshooter who shot 41.7% from three last year at Snow College. Where’s that? Hardly matters. Great shooters will succeed at any level – ask Jack Gohlke – and Jones introduced himself to Division I basketball by burying 5 of 10 3-pointers for 15 points against Miami. That kind of threat is going to make this FDU offense really fun once again.
Rider: Watch for T.J. Weeks Jr.
Another uncompetitive game (final score: UCLA 85-50), but one I got to catch some of after returning home. The Bruins led by double digits for the final 29:48. It looked like the lights were too bright for some Broncs, but not T.J. Weeks Jr.
That’s good news for Rider. Someone needed to step up as a go-to guy in the post-Mervin James/Allen Powell/Corey McKeithan era. Preferably, it would be one of the two returning starters, both of whom are fifth-year guys. Weeks knocked down all three 3-pointers he tried in the first half in Pauley Pavilion and led the Broncs with 15 points. Three of his four rebounds came off the offensive glass, showing hustle and awareness. While the rest of the Broncs start to coalesce and form a team – and they have plenty of time, no reason to worry about this loss – Weeks is probably their leader, on and off the court.