.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
Men's Basketball Wins Overtime Thriller at Penn, 76-70
March 09, 2004 | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2004
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - If you thought Tuesday night's Princeton-Penn men's basketball game didn't mean anything, you probably had a different opinion when the final buzzer sounded. But there was one fact at game's end that was definitely not a matter of opinion--the Tigers are the class of the Ivy League in 2003-04.
Faced with a nine-point deficit with under 10 minutes left, Princeton did what it had done throughout the Ivy League season--execute at the end of close games. And when the Tigers shook off a miraculous Penn tip-in at the end of regulation and had pulled out a 76-70 overtime victory over the Quakers, Princeton also showed that it had nothing left to prove as it heads into the NCAA tournament.
"It's what we've been doing the entire league season, really ever since the Minnesota game which we could have won," said head coach John Thompson. "We got stops at the end when we needed them and we executed on offense when we needed it." Princeton scored the first four points of overtime, taking a 65-61 lead on Andre Logan's layup, and Logan then hit four key free throws in the final 16 seconds of the overtime to put the game away. The junior forward scored eight of his 19 points in the overtime, tying a career high. Penn's Jeff Schiffner's only three-point shot of the game pulled the Quakers within 72-70 with 28 seconds left in the overtime, but Penn missed two shots on its possession after Logan's first two free throws.
Penn (17-10, 10-4) trailed 61-59 in the final 30 seconds of regulation, but forced a Princeton shot clock violation when Andre Logan's leaner in the lane missed the rim with 15.9 seconds remaining. The Quakers'Eric Osmundsen then missed a three-point shot from the corner on their final possession and Adam Chubb missed a putback, but Tim Begley would tip Chubb's miss in with less than one second left to send the game into overtime.
Princeton (20-7, 13-1), which won its ninth straight game, trailed 51-42 with 8:52 left but crawled back into it with key plays from just about every member of the team. When Scott Greenman (12 points hit a key three-point shot with 3:19 left, the Tigers had come all the way back to take a 58-56 lead. Judson Wallace, who scored a game-high 24 points, would then make two free throws with 1:36 left to put Princeton ahead 61-57.
Wallace finished 10 for 18 from the field and added eight rebounds, scoring 20 or more points for the seventh time in Princeton's last nine games and making a good case from himself as the Ivy League Player of the Year. Will Venable added 12 points, four assists and five steals, while Greenman also had 12 points and added four assists.
Chubb led Penn with 18 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, but the Quakers' hit just 5 of 18 three-point shots for the game. Venable held Schiffner to nine points on 3-for-9 shooting, while Begley scored 14 points but also had six turnovers.
Penn, which lost to Princeton for the first time since the 2000-2001 season, jumped out to a 12-4 lead after five minutes, but a 13-3 Princeton run led by Venable and Greenman put the Tigers ahead at 17-15 with 8:29 to go in the first half. Princeton would go on to lead by as many as five points later in the half, but a Begley three-point shot with less than five seconds left gave Penn a 31-29 lead at halftime.
The Tigers earned a 20-win season for the 17th time in school history and finished 13-1 in Ivy League play for the sixth time. Princeton finished three games ahead of both 10-4 Brown and 10-4 Penn in the Ivy League standings.