.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Yale
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
Stephens Leads Men's Basketball to 58-43 Win Over Yale
January 29, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2005
Box Score
His teammates and his coach always knew Mike Stephens could do just about everything a Princeton center needs to do and do it well. Saturday night at Jadwin Gym, 4,428 fans and the Yale Bulldogs found out about it in a big way.
Stephens scored 15 of his career-high 23 points in the second half, including 11 consecutive Princeton points in a stretch midway through the half, and added five rebounds, two assists and a career-best three blocks as the Tigers pulled away from and defeated Yale, 58-43, and improved to 1-1 on the league season.
The 6-10 Stephens, playing 25 minutes overall and nearly all of the second half in place of Judson Wallace, who went out with a bad back, shot 7 for 11 from the field, 3 for 4 from the three-point line and 6 for 6 from the foul line. He hit two big hook shots in his 11-point run that was part of a 20-8 Princeton run, and his three-point shot with 7:20 left gave the Tigers (10-6, 1-1 Ivy) a 42-36 lead. Stephens also found Scott Greenman for a wide-open three-point shot with 4:36 left that gave the Tigers a 47-38 advantage.
"I'm not sure I thought much about my own game tonight until very close to the end," said Stephens, who entered the game with five three-pointers and 51 points in 15 games. "When we were finally able to get a double-digit lead and make our free throws at the end, maybe I realized it."
Head coach Joe Scott, who saw his team make 27 of 31 free throws to counterbalance a 12-for-32 shooting performance (38%) from the field, certainly saw the performance throughout the second half.
"Mike is excellent at running our offense and doing the things we ask of our centers," said Scott. "When we had another solid performance earlier in the year against Bucknell, he had three three-pointers in that game and four assists in 22 minutes."
Yale (4-11, 0-2 Ivy), which lost for the 12th straight year at Jadwin Gym, led 26-24 at halftime but shot just 4 for 16 (25%) in the decisive second half. The Bulldogs had just three baskets in the final 10 minutes of the game.
"Our defense was a lot better tonight, especially in the second half" said Scott. "We dove on the floor to get a couple loose balls, and that gets the crowd into it as well."
But back to Stephens, whose two first-half three-pointers were instrumental in keeping the cold-shooting Tigers close early. His second "three" of the half pulled Princeton within 15-13 with 7:39 left, and the Tigers finally took the lead for the first time at 24-23 with 1:08 left on two Luke Owings free throws. Yale's Eric Flato hit a three-point shot at the first-half buzzer to give his team a halftime lead.
The Tigers never trailed after Stephens' final three-pointer gave his team a 33-30 lead with 12:42 left in the game.
"It helps when shots are going in," said Stephens, who played the game's final 17 minutes. "I was able to get my hook shot to go in tonight, and I think that opened up some outside shots for me as well."
Edwin Draughan led Yale with 12 points and seven rebounds, but he was the only Bulldog player in double figures. Yale lost to Princeton for the fifth consecutive time.
Will Venable added 11 points and six rebounds for Princeton, which avoided going 0-2 in league play for the first time since the 1983-84 season. With 10 Ivy League games played so far, only Penn (2-0), which defeated Brown Saturday night, is without a loss.