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Princeton University
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Dartmouth
Long Distance Love Affair
February 15, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2002
Final Stats
Princeton, fresh from two straight Ivy League losses, absolutely needed a win Friday night against Dartmouth. The Tigers did just that, and there was one word that best described the way they did it:
Swish.
Princeton shot 16 for 28 from three-point range en route to a 79-68 win over the Big Green at Jadwin Friday to snap the two-game skid and ensure that Princeton would not lose three straight league games for the first time since 1987. The 16 three-pointers were one off the school single-game record, set against Yale in 1997.
"We ran our offense well, and we made a lot of shots," said Ahmed El-Nokali, one of four Tigers in double figures with 11. "Guys started picking each other up, once everyone started making their shots." The victory improved Princeton to 11-9 overall and 6-2 in the Ivy League, while first-place Yale defeated Cornell 80-65 to go to 8-1. Penn hammered Harvard 78-51 to go to 5-3, while every other team has at least four losses. Princeton hosts Harvard Saturday night (7:30), while Penn hosts Dartmouth and Yale is at Columbia.
Princeton scored just 38 points Tuesday night in its loss to Penn, shooting 6 for 23 from three-point range. The Tigers needed just 14:03 against Dartmouth to reach 38 points, and they drilled 16 of 23 three-pointers after missing their first three and before missing their last two.
Konrad Wysocki, Ed Persia and Will Venable combined to go 11 for 13 from three-point range. Venable, 5 for 20 on the year coming in, was 4 for 5, while Wysocki tied his career high with 17 points, shooting 5 for 5 from the field and 3 for 3 from three. Persia's 18 points were a career-high, bettering his 17 against Cornell last year.
Princeton's three-point barrage came after the Tigers had been 29.4% as a team since exam break, a span of six games.
Princeton finished the game 23 for 40, 57.5%, and the 16 for 28 from three was 57.1%. Venable had 15 points and three assists, while El-Nokali had six assists and two steals with his 11 points. Kyle Wente had nine points, six rebounds and four assists.
Princeton built a lead of 21 at 64-43 before Dartmouth made a run to cut it to eight in the final two minutes.
In both games between the teams this season, Princeton led by 12 at the half and won by 11.