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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Harvard
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Players Mentioned
Tigers Outlast Harvard in Double Overtime, 74-68
February 09, 2007 | Men's Basketball
For the second time in four seasons, Princeton played a double overtime game against Harvard at Jadwin Gym. And for the second time in four seasons, the Tigers found a way to earn a big win against the Crimson.
Kyle Koncz's three-point shot two minutes into the second overtime put the Tigers ahead for good and Lincoln Gunn had a season-high 22 points, including a big shot that put Princeton ahead late in the first overtime, as the Tigers defeated the Crimson 74-68 in front of 2,810 in a thriller at Jadwin Gym.
Koncz's three-pointer gave the Tigers a 65-62 lead, and Justin Conway then drove the lane to make it 67-64 Princeton with 2:17 left. After Gunn made it 68-64 with a free throw with 50 seconds on the clock, Conway salted the game away for the Tigers when he took a length-of-the-court pass from Marcus Schroeder and scored to make it 70-64 with 36 seconds left.
The Tigers then made six free throws in the final 20 seconds to hold on for the win, their 18th in a row over Harvard at Jadwin Gym.
"I thought we played better as the game went along," said Joe Scott, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Princeton. "Our defense got better and better things started to happen for us. I thought we had a good week of practice, and some of those good things happened in the game for us."
Princeton trailed for most of the second half, falling behind by as many as eight points at 42-34 when Harvard's Drew Housman, who exploded for a game-high 33 points, drove the lane and scored five minutes into the half. But the Tigers then held the Crimson without a point for a seven-minute span midway through the half, and Noah Savage's three-pointer with 8:31 left tied the game at 42.
Harvard trailed 56-53 with two minutes left before Housman, who shot 11 for 23 from the field, drilled a top-of-the-key three-point shot to tie the game. The Crimson missed a chance to go ahead with 58 seconds left when Brad Unger missed two free throws, and Housman then had another chance before his shot was blocked by Koncz out of bounds with five seconds left. The Crimson could not get off another attempt in the final seconds.
Housman put Harvard ahead 59-57 with 1:34 left in the first overtime with the second of two free throws, but Gunn drilled a three-pointer 15 seconds later to put Princeton ahead by one. Housman then had a chance to put the Crimson back ahead on the foul line, but he made just the second of two free throws. Mike Strittmatter's game-winning attempt for Princeton at the other end was short to send the game into a second overtime.
Savage had a season-high 16 points for Princeton in his first start of the season, making five of nine shots from the field and all four of his free throws. Luke Owings came off the bench to score 10 points and add seven rebounds for Princeton, which ended a five-game losing streak.
"We just came out tonight with the mindset that we were going to compete and give great effort out there," said Savage. "We felt like we'd competed well recently but the ball just hasn't gone in the basket, and we just had to give the same effort and good things would start happening."
The Tigers made a season-high 14 three-point shots in 38 attempts, one off the school record for three-point attempts set against Fresno State in 1995. Harvard shot just 3 for 14 from behind the arc, including 1 for 9 in the final 30 minutes of the game.
Andrew Pusar added 12 points and Evan Harris 10 for the Crimson, who haven't won at Princeton since the 1988-89 season.
NOTES
* The Tigers defeated Harvard 58-50 in two overtimes at Jadwin Gym on Feb. 7, 2004. That game was the first multiple-OT game in Jadwin Gym history; Friday night's game was the second.
* It was the first overtime game of the season for Princeton. The Tigers' last overtime game before Friday was the season-ending 60-59 win over Penn last March.
* Princeton's freshmen backcourt of Marcus Schroeder and Lincoln Gunn combined for play 94 minutes and had nine assists and no turnovers. The Tigers had 17 assists and just 10 turnovers in the game.
* Both Gunn and Justin Conway played all 50 minutes. Senior guard Edwin Buffmire missed the game due to a sprained ankle suffered in practice this week.