.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
Dartmouth
Tigers Goin' Dancin'...Men's Basketball Holds Off Dartmouth, 64-59, To Earn NCAA Bid
March 06, 2004 | Men's Basketball
March 6, 2004
Box Score
HANOVER, N.H. - It wasn't easy for the Princeton men's basketball team on Saturday night, not when last-place Dartmouth picked the final 20 minutes of its season to play its most inspired basketball. But in a season when nothing came easy for the Tigers, Princeton wasn't going to let its chance at the NCAA tournament slip away.
Judson Wallace scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and Will Venable hit a key reverse layup with 2:42 left to stop a 10-0 Dartmouth run as the Tigers earned the outright Ivy League title and the 23rd NCAA tournament bid in program history with a 64-59 victory over the Big Green at Leede Arena.
"I've said all year that it's a 14-game tournament, and we'd see where we were when dust had settled," said Princeton head coach John Thompson, who's headed to the NCAA tournament for the second time in four seasons at the helm. "We stayed focused throughout and never wavered from caring about the game that day." Princeton (19-7, 12-1) looked like it was on the way to a rout thanks to a 10-0 blitz in the final 2:20 of the second half that gave the Tigers an 18-point lead at halftime, 32-14. Max Schafer started the run with a right-corner three-pointer, and Wallace and Andre Logan then scored on driving layups to put Princeton ahead 29-14 with just over a minute to go. Logan then hit a three-point shot from the left wing with 10 seconds on the clock to make the score 32-14.
The Tigers would then take a 20-point lead less than two minutes into the second half on a Wallace three-pointer, but less than five minutes later it was, amazingly, an entirely different game. Dartmouth (3-25, 1-13), which lost its last 18 games of the season, would score 13 points in a row to send the Leede Arena crowd into a frenzy after Leon Pattman's layup with 12:37 left.
That wasn't the Big Green's final run, however. After Princeton had extended its lead back to 47-33 with just under eight minutes left, the Tigers watched as Michael Lang and Calvin Arnold hit three-point shots and Pattman scored on a driving layup to pull Dartmouth back to within 47-43. Venable then hit his driving reverse layup on Princeton's next possession to stop the run, and the Tigers would then hit 12 of 12 free throws in the final 1:58 to finally stave off a Dartmouth team playing its final game for head coach Dave Faucher.
"Dartmouth tonight and Harvard last night showed a lot of heart," said Wallace, who averaged better than 21 points per game in Princeton's eight-game run to the Ivy title that began at Cornell Feb. 13. "But we showed heart too. They made their runs and got the crowd back into it, but we were able to play well at the end of both games."
Wallace was a perfect 12 for 12 from the free-throw line, tying a team record set by Mickey Stueurer in 1975 and Frank Sowinski in 1976. Princeton shot 20 for 24 from the free-throw line for the game, including 17 for 18 in the second half.
Venable added 11 points and seven rebounds, while Andre Logan had a team-high eight rebounds to go with eight points.
Dartmouth, which was led by Pattman's 14 points off the bench, shot just 5 for 22 from the field in the first half but exploded in the final 20 minutes, shooting 14 for 23 from the field (61%) and scoring 45 points in the half, its most in a half this season. Lang had 10 of his 13 points in the second half and Arnold had nine of his 11 points in the second half as the Big Green got within four points but no closer.
Princeton, which plays at Penn to end the regular season Tuesday night, shot 54% in the first half and outrebounded Dartmouth 32-21. The Tigers have now outrebounded their opponent by double digits in eight of 12 Ivy League games.
Princeton has now earned the Ivy League's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament nine times in the last 15 years. The Tigers made four straight NCAA appearances from 1989-92, three straight from 1996-98 and went to the tournament in Thompson's first year, 2000-01.
"I think at the end of the game it was maybe a sense of relief, but when we got in the locker room we realized what we had accomplished in terms of making the NCAA's," said Wallace. "It's our goal to win the league and make the tournament, and it feels great to have accomplished that goal."
Remember, the only way to get your Ivy League championship gear is through www.IvySport.com.