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Princeton University
Yale
Men's Basketball Uses Big Second Half to Run by Yale, 70-58
February 20, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2004
Box Score
The Princeton men's basketball team may have played its best 21 minutes of the season Friday night against Yale, turning a big deficit into a big lead seemingly in the blink of an eye. And with the resurgence of center Judson Wallace and the continued strong play of guard Will Venable, the Tigers look in good shape to have more of those kind of stretches in the final weeks of the season.
Wallace scored 18 of his 29 points in the second half as the Tigers came back from a seven-point halftime deficit, and Venable had another strong game with 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals despite turning an ankle in the second half as Princeton defeated Yale, 70-58, before 5,124 at Jadwin Gym Friday night. Princeton (14-7, 7-1) outscored Yale (9-13, 4-5) 42-23 in the second half and 23-4 in a eight-minute stretch spanning halftime, turning a 35-21 deficit into a 44-39 lead on a Wallace layup with 13:09 left in the second half. Then, after Yale scored five straight points to tie the game at 44 two minutes later, Ed Persia hit a three-pointer from the left corner to put Princeton ahead for good and start an 8-0 Princeton run that essentially put the game away.
"We've been in tough situations the last few weekends and in the non-conference season and we haven't panicked," said Wallace, who is averaging 25 points in his last three games, all Princeton wins. "We know we can come back from being down in the first half if we execute and work hard on the defensive end."
Wallace shot 11 for 12 from the field, with his only miss coming early in the second half on a hook shot that he then rebounded and gave the Tigers possession after throwing the ball off a Yale player under the basket. The junior center, who scored 23 points at Columbia and 22 at Cornell last weekend, also made both of his three-point attempts, including one that gave Princeton a 50-44 lead with 9:28 left, and shot 5 for 7 from the foul line.
"Judson is really playing with a lot of confidence right now," said Princeton head coach John Thompson. "He's getting the ball in good spots and good situations and really taking advantage of his opportunities."
After a tight first 10 minutes, Yale took control of the game in the final 10 minutes of the second half, using a 13-2 run in a four-minute span late in the half to take a 35-21 lead on Alex Gamboa's three-pointer with 1:43 on the clock.
But Venable then singlehandedly got the Tigers back to within striking distance in the final 1:19 of the half. His three-pointer pulled Princeton within 35-24, and he then drove the lane and scored with 44 seconds on the clock to make the score 35-26. Then, in the final seconds of the half, Venable stole a Matt Minoff outlet pass after a missed free throw by Wallace and scored right before the halftime buzzer to pull Princeton within 35-28.
"Will really gave us a lot of energy going into halftime with the plays he made near the end of the half," said Thompson. "That kind of energy seemed to continue into the second half from the whole team."
The Tigers held Yale to 33% shooting in the second half (6 for 18), and Venable held Yale leading scorer Edwin Draughan to just six points and 1-for-5 shooting from the field. Princeton shot 57% from the field for the game and made 8 of 18 three-point shots, including four of eight in the second half.
Gamboa led Yale with 12 points, while Paul Vitelli had 10 points and six rebounds. Freshman Max Schafer tied a season high with 10 points for the Tigers, shooting 4 for 5 from the field and 2 for 3 from beyond the arc in 17 minutes.
Princeton stayed one-half game ahead of Brown, a 78-74 winner at Penn, in the race for first place in the Ivy League. The Tigers can move two games ahead of the rest of the field in the loss column with a win over the Bears Saturday night, while a Brown win would put the Bears one-half game ahead of the Tigers.
NOTES
* Ed Persia's three-pointer that put Princeton ahead in the second half was the 143rd of his career, moving him past Chris Mooney '94 into sixth place on Princeton's all-time list.
* The Tigers have now come back from first-half deficits of seven points, eight points and 14 points in their last three games to earn victories. Princeton has won its last two games after being down at halftime after not winning a game when down at halftime in the first 19 games of the season.
* Princeton has a 52-1 all-time record against Brown in Princeton. The Bears' first-ever win on the Princeton campus came last season.