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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Brown
Venable Leads Sizzling Princeton Past Brown, 69-52
February 19, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2005
Box Score
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Will Venable needed a big night to have a chance at 1,000 career points. Princeton just needed a win.
The two went hand-in-hand Saturday night at Brown.
Venable scored 18 points as Princeton shot a season-best 65% from the field and had a season-high 18 assists en route to an easy 69-52 win over Brown at the Pizzitola Center. The win was Princeton's first league win on the road in five games this season, and it moved Princeton past Brown and Columbia into sixth place in the Ivy standings.
Princeton moved back over .500 at 12-11 overall while moving to 3-6 in the league. The Tigers, who shot 9 of 16 from three-point range in the win, can move into fourth place next weekend with a sweep at Columbia and Cornell.
"It was a big win for us because we really needed a win, but also because we needed to play well as a team," said Venable, who also had a huge game at the Pizzitola Center last year. "We found open guys tonight and took advantage of our opportunities for easy baskets." The victory came one night after Princeton never led in a 56-43 loss at Yale that dropped the Tigers to 0-4 on Friday nights in the league. The win over Brown made Princeton 3-1 on Saturday nights and avenged a 57-52 loss at Jadwin Gym to the Bears in the first Ivy game of the season.
Princeton shot a sizzling 70% from the field in the first half and actually increased it through the first 14 minutes of the second half, with a percentage at 73.5% when the lead reached 66-40 with six minutes to play.
"I thought our seniors played great tonight," said Princeton head coach Joe Scott. "In these last few games, they're going to need to play well for us to win. I thought we missed a lot of chances for layups last night, but tonight we found those same guys for easy baskets."
Venable, who scored two points against Yale Friday night, came into the game Saturday night 62 points away from the 1,000-point mark for his career with seven games remaining in the regular season. Venable shot 6 for 10 against the Bears to finish with 18, giving him 956 for his career.
Mike Stephens had his second straight double-figure game with 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting, including 2 of 4 three-point shooting. Luke Owings was the third Princeton player in double figures with 10 points.
Brown, which had Jason Forte score half of its 52 points, led twice in the game, at 12-11 and 15-14 early in the first half. Princeton took the lead for good on a Noah Savage three-pointer with 11:47 left in the first half, built the lead to as much as eight before leading by five at intermission and then broke the game wide open by scoring the first 10 points of the second half.
Princeton shot 26 of 40 for the game and had 18 assists on its 26 baskets. Brown shot 37.8% for the night after Ivy teams had come into the game shooting 48% against the Tigers.
The Tigers scored on 12 consecutive possessions during their early second-half run, shooting 12 for 13 from the field in that time. The only missed shot was a Venable layup that was tipped in by Judson Wallace that gave the Tigers a 45-31 lead five minutes into the half, and that run ended when Stephens hit a three-pointer to give the Tigers a 62-37 lead with 8:31 left in the game.