Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
George Washington
Players Mentioned
Threes Don't Fall for Men's Hoops in 65-50 Loss at GW
November 25, 2009 | Men's Basketball
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A season ago, the Princeton men's basketball team was forecasted to finish last in the Ivy League. Instead, it finished second. Tuesday night at George Washington, this year's Tigers, who would fool no one if they had an upper-division Ivy League season, ran into what looks like another surprise team.
That's not to say Princeton overlooked George Washington before the Colonials' 65-50 win at the Smith Center. GW was picked to finish 13th of the Atlantic 10's 14 teams, yet is off to a 4-0 start with three straight double-digit victories. That stretch includes a 43-point win over UMBC last Saturday, which made the Colonials at least unwise if not impossible to look past, even with California ahead Sunday for the Tigers.
GW freshman Bryan Bynes led the team with 13 points while hitting 4 of 5 from three-point range, a weapon the Colonials used less often and with more accuracy than the Tigers.
Princeton (2-2) fell behind by as much as 10 in the first half, going 3 for 14 from three-point range against a GW team that allowed opponents just 28.8 percent success from beyond the arc through its first three contests. The Colonials went 9 for 16 (.563) from three-point range.
The second half produced much of the same for Princeton, which made just 19.2 percent (5 for 26) of its threes on the night. The preference for dialing from distance came one game after the Tigers took 31 such shots against Army. Last season, Princeton took more than 50 three-pointers in back-to-back games only once, at Central Connecticut and Lafayette (52). Princeton was similarly cold in both instances, making 14 of 52 (.269) in the two-game stretch last season and 13 of 57 (.228) against GW and Army.
Video: Sydney Johnson, Patrick Saunders and Marcus Schroeder in the postgame media conference.
Those missed three-pointers didn't lead to many second-chance rebounds for Princeton, which GW handled on the glass 39-22 and limited to only five offensive boards.
Princeton couldn't quite string together a run like it did when rallying against Manhattan and coming close to erasing a 20-point deficit against Army. The closest Princeton got after the break was five on a bucket by Patrick Saunders with less than eight minutes left. By the 4:14 mark, a three-pointer by GW's Damian Hollis put the lead back at 10.
Saunders hit 5 of 7 field goals on the night to lead Princeton with 12 points.
The Colonials rolled up the lead late, scoring 18 of the last 26 points after Princeton pulled to within 47-42. The gap was at its largest after Bynes hit one of two free throws to put the Colonials up by 19 with 1:32 to play. The Bynum miss was GW's only free throw of 17 that didn't fall.
Sunday's game at Berkeley will begin at 2 p.m. Pacific Time and will be televised in the Northern California area on CSN California.