Princeton takes over first place in Ivy the hard way: ‘We totally stole that’
Plus: Notes on Seton Hall's latest loss and Rider's heart-stopping weekend.
PRINCETON – Eleven months ago, Princeton hosted Dartmouth and ran away with an 85-40 win. The Tigers led that game by 30 points at halftime and by 49 at its most lopsided. Dartmouth went 1-of-20 from 3-point range.
Let’s just say this: In the Ivy League, the times, they are a-changing.
Both these teams are vastly different in 2022-23, and the Big Green have improved in a meaningful way. Dartmouth entered Jadwin Gym Saturday with a 7-12 record but a 3-2 mark in the Ivy League with wins at Yale, home to Penn and at Harvard. Four different players made multiple 3-pointers for a total of 10, and Dartmouth led by five with two minutes left in regulation.
But a chaotic ending let Princeton force overtime, where Keeshawn Kellman and company held off the Big Green 93-90 to improve to 14-5 and 5-1 in the Ivy.
“I’ve always said in this league – I said the same thing to (Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin) after the game – you have to steal a couple games if you’re gonna have a good season,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said. “We totally stole that. They were the better team throughout large parts of the game.
“The whole game we were on our heels. I thought they were terrific, one of the better teams we’ve seen this year.”
Princeton has sole possession of first place in the league now because Cornell took its second loss of the season, losing to Harvard. Dartmouth, Harvard, Brown and Yale are tied at 3-3 and Penn – one of the preseason favorites – is hanging out in seventh at 2-4.
To Henderson, it’s “the closest, tightest-knit group of teams I’ve ever seen.”
“We’ve had I think five or six possessions in the league that got us a win and we’ve been able to win those,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side of it too. There’s a togetherness that might get you there but you need to make those plays. We were lucky tonight to make them.”
Following up a 72-70 loss at Brown and last Monday’s 72-60 win at Penn, the Tigers lived on the edge against Dartmouth. The Big Green held the lead for nearly 29 minutes, by as many as nine, as Ryan Cornish went off for the game of his life – 31 points, three 3-pointers, seven rebounds, four assists.
After Kellman’s free throw cut it to 76-72 with 1:10 left, Caden Pierce stole the inbounds pass and threw it to Tosan Evbuomwan, who kicked it out to Matt Allocco for a quick 3-pointer.
Dartmouth allowed Princeton two more opportunities, off a missed shot and an athletic steal by Ryan Langborg in full-court pressure – and both possessions ended in charging calls on Allocco and Evbuomwan, respectively.
But with 10 seconds left it was Xaivian Lee’s turn to come up with a miracle steal. Evbuomwan wound up at the line and made just the second of his two free throws, forcing overtime.
Kellman, who had a nice start to the Ivy season before being held to four points on 1-of-2 shooting across his last three games, scored six of his 18 points in overtime, including the go-ahead layup with 59 seconds.
“We get after it every day in practice,” Kellman said. “In film, there’s a great amount of detail. That translates to the court. Tough moments like that, that’s where our discipline comes in and we build our discipline daily.”
His will under the basket and finishing at the rim have been a boon for the Tigers all season.
“You’ve seen it, when he’s like this, that’s what they were allowing him to do,” Henderson said. “It takes a massive amount of pressure off everyone else in what they have to do, because you’re getting layups right at the basket.”
The only reason Princeton was in striking distance in the final minutes of regulation was its ability to make clutch free throws. The Tigers are shooting just 69.3 percent from the line this season, but during the second half it clawed back in when 10 points in a row came from the line, with Lee’s pair at 8:29 giving them their first lead in ages.
“We did some things that kept us in the game,” Henderson said. “We made free throws. I think we made 16 in a row at one point.”
Close – it was 17, including the first 13 they attempted of the second half. Princeton went 26-for-34 from the line, while Dartmouth was 12-for-16.
Narrow wins are still wins. That was Henderson’s whole point about “stealing” games. In a smaller league like the Ivy where everyone knows one another well, winning even when you’re not at your best makes a big difference in the final standings. That’s why Yale is 3-3, after failing to come back against last-place Columbia in the league opener and wasting a road lead at Cornell, while Princeton is 5-1.
Or ask Dartmouth, whose aforementioned three league wins have come by a combined nine points. They still count the same in the standings.
There will be areas to address on defense after Princeton allowed a season-high in points, just one game after containing Jordan Dingle and Penn. And now every Ivy opponent is sure to give the Tigers their best shot, starting with a Yale team desperate for wins this Saturday in New Haven.
For now, Princeton will be grateful it found a new way to beat an old foe.
“I think you win that game once out of 100 times,” Henderson said. “We were fortunate.”
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Thanks for stopping by on this Monday. Speaking of fortunate, I’ve been great at picking my spots lately. First Seton Hall’s walk-off win over UConn, then a high-scoring overtime game at Jadwin.
But there are some rebounds to grab, so let’s clean the glass with other notes from the weekend that was in Jersey college hoops.
In addition to the game-altering inbounds steal, Pierce put up a career-high 17 points and a career-high-tying 13 rebounds. He’s shooting it more consistently and Henderson deemed him “one of the best rebounders I’ve ever seen.” No big deal, just a freshman doing things freshmen rarely do at Princeton. If you missed it, here’s my deep dive into the Tigers’ freshman class from earlier this month, with notes on how Pierce, Lee and Deven Austin got to Princeton and how they fit the program so well.
“I think each and every game I’m figuring out, trying different things out, seeing what’s working, what’s not,” Pierce said Saturday. “Like you said I just think I’m building more confidence each and every game.”Seton Hall was tough to watch in a 74-53 home loss to Marquette, the worst part being 26 turnovers. I think we understand by now that the Pirates haven’t stacked up against the top four-ish teams in the Big East but are handling business against the lower half of the league. The next three games they play (at Butler, at St. John’s, home to DePaul) probably won’t tell us much unless they blow a big lead or something to that effect. Instead, I’ve got the second week of February circled. Seton Hall gets Creighton at home on Feb. 8 and pays a visit to a middling Villanova team Feb. 11. After Creighton beat them by 22 early this month, the Pirates had better show real improvement in the return game.
Then there’s this: Alexis Yetna (knee) will not play this season after all. As transcribed by Jaden Daly, here’s how Shaheen Holloway responded when a reporter asked how Yetna was coming along.
Message received. I don’t know how often Holloway was getting asked for Yetna updates; a search on Twitter seems to indicate the media corps last asked Dec. 30. The whispers last month had been that early January could be a target for his return, but that never transpired. We need to factor in Holloway’s anger after a blowout loss and his tendency to say exactly what he’s thinking. Still, I can’t tell how much of this was directed at the media versus how much was directed at Yetna, given the “he ain’t helping us” tag at the end.
Call them the Comeback Broncs. They nearly rallied to beat power-conference opponents Providence and Georgia on the road, they stormed back from 18 down to stun Iona eight days ago and over the weekend they notched two more dramatic wins at home. Rider overcame a double-digit deficit to beat Niagara 65-62 on Friday, with Mervin James playing the hero (a steal and go-ahead free throws, not unlike Princeton’s comeback). Then Manhattan took a one-point lead when Murray fouled a 3-point shooter, but Murray fixed the mistake with his go-ahead steal and fast-break score for Rider to win 67-65. Is it sustainable? I don’t know, but it sure is fun. Speaking of tight conferences, the Broncs are tied for third in the MAAC with Quinnipiac, a game behind Siena and a half-game behind Iona. Saint Peter’s is bringing up the rear at 3-8.
FDU has slipped out of first place in the Northeast Conference after back-to-back home losses Friday and Sunday to Sacred Heart to Stonehill. They’re still in nice shape for the stretch run at 12-10 (5-2 NEC). With that, why don’t we bring back a little graphic I introduced in mid-December ranking New Jersey’s eight programs, now updated and sorted by NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) ranking…
