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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Columbia
Bechtold's Career Night Carries Princeton Past Columbia In A Thriller
March 02, 2002 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2002
Final Stats
New York - This is usually the time of year when Mike Bechtold's legs can't take anymore. This time around, those legs were strong enough to carry an entire basketball team.
Bechtold, whose first three seasons ended with stress fractures in his legs, had the best game of his career when his team needed him most.
Bechtold scored a career-high 25 points, including the game-winning three-pointer with 33.5 seconds to go, to lead Princeton to a 49-48 win over Columbia at Levien Gym. The victory clinched at least a tie for Princeton's ninth Ivy League title in the last 14 years.
Bechtold's three-pointer gave Princeton its first lead of the night. Columbia took its first lead at 2-0 after 1:42 was gone and the Lions would never trail until Bechtold's three. The Lions then got the ball to Craig Austin, last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, but his pullup shot with five seconds remaining was short, and Ahmed El-Nokali came away with the rebound. He was fouled with 2.8 seconds to go and missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Columbia could not get a shot off.
The outcome was huge for the Tigers. Had Princeton lost, then Yale would have clinched a tie for the title and would have played the winner of Tuesday's Princeton-at-Penn game in a playoff next weekend. Instead, Princeton can clinch the outright championship with a win Tuesday night and is assured of being in no worse than a three-game playoff.
Penn and Yale each won easily Saturday night, leaving Princeton at 11-2, followed by Yale at 11-3 and Penn at 10-3.
The loss was a tough way to end the season for the Lions, who finished 4-10 in the league and 11-17 overall. Columbia led by as many as 11 in the first half, by nine at intermission at 30-21 and throughout the second half until Princeton finally pulled even at 38-38 on a Bechtold layup with 11:35 to go.
But Columbia reeled off six straight after that to go back up 44-38, only to see Princeton tie it again on four more points by Bechtold, who had 17 after intermission, and a jump hook by Dominick Martin.
Columbia made one of two foul shots on two occasions to go up 46-44, but Kyle Wente tied it again at 46-46 with both ends of a one-and-one with 1:22 to go.
Again Columbia came back, this time on a layup by Treg Duerksen with 1:03 to play that made it 48-46. Princeton called timeout with 55 seconds to go, worked the ball off the timeout and then had Bechtold nail his three-pointer five seconds on the shot clock and 33.5 on the game clock.
Bechtold, whose previous career best was 23 against Lafayette last year, was the only Tiger in double figures. He shot 5 for 10 from three-point range, while the rest of the team was 4 for 18 from beyond the arc. Bechtold shot 9 for 15 overall, while the rest of the team went 6 for 28.
Ahmed El-Nokali had six points for the Tigers, while Konrad Wysocki had four points and six rebounds.
Duerksen led Columbia with 17 and was the only other player in the game in double figures. Kyle Wente hounded Austin to 1 for 7 shooting in the second half as he finished with half his average with eight points.