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Princeton University
Yale
Princeton Wins Must Game Over Yale 59-46
February 22, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2002
Final Stats
Princeton entered its game Friday night against Yale with its season in the balance. One tremendous defensive effort later, the Tigers are still very much alive in the Ivy League race.
Princeton used strong defense and a key stretch in the final 20 seconds of the first half to knock off Yale 59-46 at sold-out Jadwin Gym.
"This was the biggest game of the year," said Princeton coach John Thompson. "If you lose this game, you don't have control of the title."
Princeton (13-9, 8-2) and Yale (17-8, 9-2) are now tied in the loss column, though Yale is a half-game ahead with one more win. Penn, a 19-point winner over Brown, improved to 20-6 and 7-3 in the Ivy League.
Princeton, Penn and Yale all would win the league by winning their remaining games. That stretch begins Saturday night when Princeton hosts Brown and Penn hosts Yale. Harvard and Brown are still technically alive mathematically. Princeton and Penn improved to 103-3 at home against the other six Ivy schools for the last nine years.
Yale had defeated Princeton 60-50 in New Haven two weeks earlier, and the Bulldogs led for better than 35 minutes of that game. In the rematch, it was Princeton who played from ahead for the majority of the game.
Yale led 2-0 and 4-2 but would not lead again after Mike Bechtold's three-pointer made it 5-4. Still, Princeton could not put the Bulldogs away - until the end of the first half.
Princeton was up 20-15, but Yale had the ball with the shot clock off. Will Venable stripped T.J. McHugh and went end-to-end for a layup to make it 22-15, and Princeton forced a turnover with two seconds remaining. Inbounding the ball at its foul line out of bounds, Princeton threw a pass to Mike Bechtold, who caught the ball, dribbled twice and launched a 25-footer that swished after the horn had sounded.
"That was the biggest part of the game," McHugh said. "We had a chance to make it a three-point game, but they got the turnover and the basket and the three-pointer."
Yale would get no closer than 10 in the second half. Princeton led by as many as 19 after holding Yale to a five-minute scoreless stretch.
The Tigers were led by Ed Persia's 16 points, while Bechtold had 10. Kyle Wente had seven points and five rebounds, and Ahmed El-Nokali had six points, two assists, two steals and no turnovers in 36 minutes.
Yale was led by Alex Gamboa's 15 points.