.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Texas A
Men's Hoops Rides Hot Shooting To Championship Game Of Cable Car Classic
December 27, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2002
Box Score
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Will Venable led Princeton with 21 points while Konrad Wysocki added his first double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds, both season highs, as the Tigers defeated Texas A&M 76-62 in the second semifinal of the 36th Cable Car Classic. Princeton will face Santa Clara Saturday at approximately 8:15 PST for the championship. The host Broncos rallied to defeat Mississippi Valley State 70-63 in the first game. The game can be seen live on HDNet, a service of DirecTV, and can be heard on WBUD 1260 AM and on GoPrincetonTigers.com.
This will be the second time that Princeton and Santa Clara will meet for the Cable Car classic championship. In 1990, Kit Mueller and Sean Jackson would be named to the all-tournament team, but their efforts were not enough to keep the Broncos from earning a 59-53 win and the championship. The only other meeting between the two teams came in 1983, when Princeton earned a 75-53 win at the Christmas Kettle Classic in Houston, Texas. Princeton earned its first win over a Big 12 team with the victory Friday night. After an early-season loss to Oklahoma and a nationally televised three-point loss to No. 10 Texas on Sunday, the Tigers used a solid shooting night to upend a talented Texas A&M squad which has earned earlier victories over both Tennessee and LSU. The latter was the first team to defeat No. 1 Arizona this season.
The Tigers ended the game shooting 56% from the field. Four players scored in double digits, as Gloger's 19 points and Kyle Wente's 11 points joined the strong efforts of Venable and Wysocki. Wente was 5 for 6 from the field, following a 6-for-11 performance against Texas. Wente has made two more field goals in his last two games than he did in his first seven (nine).
The Tigers took control of the game from the start and never looked back. Princeton, which had limited success with backdoor layups in its Sunday loss to Texas, scored two of its first three baskets of the game on backdoor cuts by Kyle Wente. It took Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins four minutes before he had seen enough, making a full five-for-five substitution after Wente's second open layup.
While the Aggies worked to improve their close-range defense, Gloger brought the offense outside. The junior product of Santa Margarita High School hit his first four shots, including three beyond the arc. Gloger also found Venable for an athletic layup, which ended up being a three-point play when Venable was fouled hard. Gloger would only hit one more field goal the rest of the game, but his early efforts were enough to push Princeton to a double-digit lead.
Ray Robins joined the shooting party, draining an open three-pointer from the baseline. Princeton forced a turnover on the next possession, which led to a traditional layup by Wente, opening a 28-11 lead with 8:20 remaining and forcing Watkins to take a timeout. At that point, the Aggies had more turnovers (six) than they had made field goals (five).
Princeton continued to pour it on, as Ed Persia drained a three-pointer, and Venable converted on his third three-point play of the half, all of which came on layup-free throw combinations. His third gave the Tigers a 21-point lead late in the first half. Another backdoor layup by Wente reopened a 21-point lead with nine seconds remaining, but Antoine Wright buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to move the score to 44-26 at the half. Wright, a highly touted freshman for the Aggies, scored 12 points in the half and singlehandedly kept his teammates within shouting distance during the first 20 minutes. Princeton shot 61% (17 for 28) from the field in the first half and had more assists (12) than Texas A&M had field goals (11). Princeton scored 17 points off Texas A&M turnovers in the first half.
The Aggies' defense tightened in the second half. After causing only three turnovers in the first half, they were able to get six in the first nine minutes of the second half. After the sixth, a missed backdoor pass by Konrad Wysocki, Kevin Turner hit a three-pointer from NBA range to get the deficit to single digits for the first time since midway through the first half.
As he has on a number of occasions this season, Venable made a momentum-turning play on the ensuing possession. As the Aggies defended any three-point shots, Venable created his own play, driving for a layup and a foul. It was the fourth three-point play for the sophomore point guard, who came into the game as a 91% free throw shooter.
The lead would stay double digits until Bernard King converted a Princeton turnover into a layup. He would get fouled on the play, but Texas A&M again turned a potentially good situation into a bad one, fouling Wysocki on the missed layup. Wysocki made the first and missed the second, but Robins grabbed the rebound and eventually Venable ended with a layup. Texas A&M was called for a charge, and Venable came back with a pair of free throws. What has been an eight-point lead less than a minute earlier was back up to 13 points, and the Aggies were out of rallies.
In the first game of the 2002 Cable Car Classic, the host Santa Clara Broncos (7-3) survived a major scare from Mississippi Valley State, a team that entered the tournament with one win during the season, and advanced to the final with a 70-63 victory. The Delta Devils (1-7) led several times, including a three-point advantage at halftime, and were even at 47-47 with Santa Clara with slightly more than six minutes remaining. The Broncos exploded from that point, going on a 14-0 run before the final media timeout came with 3:27 remaining. Brandon Rohe, a high school teammate of Gloger, scored a career-high 29 points and hit 5 of 6 three-pointers. Attarrius Norwood led Mississippi Valley State with 26 points.