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Princeton University Athletics
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December 09, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2000
Princeton waited almost a month into the men's basketball season to play its home opener. It was worth the wait.
The Tigers, playing in front of a Jadwin Gym crowd for the first time this season, put together a tremendous all-around team effort to knock off Atlantic 10-power Xavier 58-52 in front of 4,405.
Princeton had lost two tough games to Xavier the past two seasons, losing in the 1999 NIT quartefinals and last year's regular season. Both of those games were in Cincinnati.
Princeton improved to 3-3 under first-year coach John Thompson, while Xavier slipped to 5-2. The Tigers host Rutgers Thursday (7:37 tip-off) in their only other home game before January.
Princeton snapped a 50-50 tie in the final three minutes, going on an 8-0 run to seize control. Xavier led only once in the second half, at 38-37 with 11 minutes remaining, but the Musketeers tied it at 50-50 on two foul shots from Maurice McAfee with 2:44 to go. After a timeout, Princeton regained the lead for good when Nate Walton threw a perfect pass to Andre Logan, whose layup was goaltended by David West. Kyle Wente then made one of two foul shots, and Ahmed El-Nokali then made four straight foul shots after Logan came up with two defensive rebounds.
Mike Bechtold led Princeton with 16 points on 4 of 6 shooting from the field, all from three-point range, and 4 of 5 shooting from the line. Walton had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Logan had eight points, five rebounds and two blocked shots on consecutive layup attempts by Lloyd Price in the second half.
West led Xavier with 18 points, shooting 5 for 6 from the field and 8 for 10 from the line, and 11 rebounds, six offensive.
Princeton shot 17 for 36 from the field, 9 of 21 from three-point range. Xavier shot 15 for 44 and had a 31-23 advantage in rebounds.
Xavier had its biggest lead at 19-12 in the first half. Princeton led by as many as nine in the second half.