Princeton’s banner day: A celebration, then a comeback for the history book
The Tigers wouldn’t be 8-0 right now without their resilience, tried and tested from last year’s run through the Ivy League and beyond.
PRINCETON – As big a deal as it is for an Ivy League team to reach the Sweet 16, Saturday’s celebration of Princeton’s March Madness run was short and to the point.
The Sweet 16 banner was unveiled before the Tigers’ second home game of the season (their first with students on campus), and while the crowd was appropriately enthusiastic, the players and coaches didn’t dwell. It was time to focus on Furman.
About two hours later, the Tigers were celebrating, really celebrating. And they had to dig down for another one of their patented comebacks to make it happen.
The Tigers rallied from 11 points down at the under-4 timeout, and Matt Allocco completed the comeback with the game-winning 3-pointer with about four seconds left to give Princeton a dramatic 70-69 win over Furman, defending champs of the Southern Conference.
The Tigers wouldn’t be 8-0 right now without that resilience, tried and tested from last year’s run through the Ivy League and beyond.
“Playing in front of big crowds, dealing with adversity and just being older, we have experienced guys who have played in big-time games. It helps so much,” Caden Pierce said.
They didn’t shoot like the Tigers we are used to, the ones who put the motto “Make Shots” on walls and T-shirts. They made two of their first 26 3-pointers before Pierce calmly knocked one down to tie the game at 67 with 1:38 left.
That made it a 13-2 Princeton run and counting, but Furman answered with an easy layup at the other end. It took a traveling call on the Paladins and multiple offensive rebounds for the Tigers to set up Allocco’s go-ahead shot.
Allocco’s first and only triple of the day made the Tigers 4-for-31 from three.
“We were due for one,” Allocco said. “We trust all our guys on our team to make shots. We’re going to have days where we don’t shoot it great and we’re going to have to win in other ways.”
Those other ways, in Saturday’s case, included several trips to the foul line and a full-court press that got under the Paladins’ skin. Allocco, Pierce and Xaivian Lee started the game-winning run by making two free throws apiece. The Tigers’ press then forced three straight steals.
Mitch Henderson joked postgame that he “still (didn’t) know exactly what happened,” but he knew the anatomy of this comeback came down to free throws and aggressive defense.
“There were a couple tie-ups underneath their basket where there was no time off the clock and we got two points out of it,” Henderson said of the fouls. “The clock seemed to be going slowly, which was great for us and terrible for them. Yeah, we had to be in the double bonus. I said to them, ‘I’ve got three timeouts left. I’ll use all of them so you can get rest, and I’m not using the last one.’”
With every point, the pro-Princeton crowd grew louder as fans realized the game was still there for the taking.
“Especially playing at home in front of a good crowd, I think if a team has a lead and you start to (score) a couple points, make a little comeback, (they) start to get some nerves on the other side,” Pierce said. “I think the crowd played a huge part in the win and we really feed off the crowd.”
“It was great, it was unbelievable,” Allocco said of the audience there for the banner-raising. “You like to play in those moments. Especially at home, you’ve got the whole crowd on your side. We appreciate the whole community for coming out. They were unbelievable. They really showed out for us.”
This was the second straight game Princeton came back from an 11-point deficit in the second half after it had to do the same Wednesday at Bucknell.
You get the sense the Tigers are almost never out of a game. There was last year’s comeback against Penn in the regular-season finale that turned a 17-point halftime deficit into an overtime victory. Or their win over Cornell in January 2022, the first time Allocco made a last-chance 3-pointer for the win.
“We always believe that we can make a run,” Allocco said.
Lee had another tremendous showing on offense, his several drives to the hoop amounting to a game-high 24 points, nine on free throws. But Pierce had the busiest day of all, with 22 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, three steals, the 3-pointer that tied the game and the offensive rebound and kick out to Allocco to arrange the game-winner.
“He just seems to know exactly where it’s gonna go and when to go. It’s like Dennis Rodman. He’s just there right every time,” Henderson said. “He had (22) and 15. How many times have we seen that in the history of Princeton basketball? It’s regularly happening.”
As Princeton continues to build a stellar nonconference resume, Henderson danced past a question about the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). The first NET ratings of the season come out Monday; it’s relevant because a Princeton team that, say, goes 25-4 but loses its conference championship game could be in the mix for an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament with a high enough rating.
And the schedule only gets stronger before it softens up. A home game against Drexel on Tuesday and a road game at Saint Joseph’s the following Sunday? Both those teams have defeated Villanova already this year. Saint Joe’s also took Kentucky to overtime and just won the Philadelphia Big 5 title.
“I love these games,” Henderson said. “Two Philly teams, well-coached, both playing well. … I said to the guys today like, ‘Look, you’re playing three games in a row where if you’re a college basketball fan, these are fun games to watch.’”
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Hi there, happy Sunday. Here’s a quick trip around New Jersey, starting with a beatdown in Piscataway:
No. 24 Illinois demolished Rutgers 76-58 in the Scarlet Knights’ Big Ten opener. Austin Williams had nine points off the bench for Rutgers in the first half but couldn’t score in the second half. Cliff Omoruyi shot 3-of-10 for eight points, and while he also had a career-high eight blocks, this game won’t be remembered for any form of Rutgers dominance in the low post. Illinois controlled the glass 55-27, with 19 offensive boards. “We just didn’t do what we needed to do on the backboards,” Pikiell said. “We didn’t get our own offensive rebounds. We missed a lot and they manhandled us on the glass, and I’m not happy with that. They had size at every position and I knew that would be an issue for us, but I didn’t think it would be that much of an issue.”
Fairleigh Dickinson 71, NJIT 68. NJIT has worked on its offense and it earned a 46-39 halftime lead. But after several lead changes down the stretch, Jo’el Emanuel’s layup with 21 seconds left did the trick for FDU. He had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Joe Munden Jr. had 19 points and three steals as the Knights won without big days from their top two scorers, Ansley Almonor and Sean Moore. FDU is 5-5 with winnable games against Manhattan, Columbia and Fairfield coming up.
Saint Peter’s and Rider had opposing results in their MAAC openers Friday. The Peacocks built a big lead before they had to hang on to beat Niagara 72-67 on the road. Michael Houge (19 points, nine rebounds) continues to lead the Peacocks, but they also got a nice 6-for-7 shooting day from Latrell Reid for 15 points.
Rider, though, couldn’t put Siena away on the road and lost a very tight game 67-65. The Broncs shot just 34.5% in the second half and gave up a three-point lead with less than four minutes left on a quick triple, turnover, foul shots sequence. Rider won a lot of these close games in conference last season – it’s fair to ask whether the killer instinct will still be there this season without Dwight Murray Jr. around.