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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Wagner
Players Mentioned
Dish and a Dunk Help Men's Hoops Top Wagner (Video Included)
December 31, 2009 | Men's Basketball
And then, not a moment too soon, the Princeton defense turned it up.
Wagner committed eight turnovers in a span of less than five minutes while Princeton scored 14 straight points to close the deficit on its way to a 45-42 win.
Not that the final five minutes after Princeton closed the gap weren't interesting.
For nearly four minutes, Princeton managed only one free throw while a bucket by Michael Orock, who led the Seahawks with 19 points, put the Wagner lead at three inside of two minutes left.
Video: Sydney Johnson, Kareem Maddox and Dan Mavraides in the postgame press conference.
Dan Mavraides, who led all scorers with a season-high 21 points, stepped up with a game-tying three with less than a minute to go. He followed that by scooping up a loose ball at the other end to give Princeton a chance to seal the victory with the last shot.
After whittling the final possession down to less than 10 seconds, Douglas Davis made a baseline pass to Kareem Maddox under the hoop for the go-ahead dunk. Maddox, who was fouled on the play, hit the free throw to put Princeton up three, and Marcus Schroeder, who had a career-high seven steals, notched his final one to end Wagner's chance to tie.
Wagner finished with 27 turnovers on the game, allowing Princeton to win despite the Tigers shooting 34 percent (17 of 50) overall and 18.5 percent (5 of 27) from three-point range. Wagner made 43.2 percent of its shots (16 of 37), including 3 of 8 from distance. The Seahawks also won the battle of the boards, 31-24.
Schroeder's seven steals put him one behind the all-time Princeton record for a single game. Princeton's 14 steals were its most against a Division I team since Feb. 12, 2000, when the Tigers pulled 14 from Harvard.
The win extended Princeton's streak to four games, moving the Tigers' record to 6-4 while Wagner dropped to 2-12. It was Princeton's fourth straight game holding its opponent to 50 or fewer points, the first time the Tigers have done that against four straight Division I schools since the 2001-02 season. Wagner's 42 points tied its season-low.
Davis, who scored eight points, moved into second place on the team's active career scoring list with 461 points, just ahead of Schroeder (459) and behind Zach Finley (528). With Davis' points also making him the second-highest scorer for Princeton on the night, it marked the first time this season the Tigers have won with only one player, Dan Mavraides, in double digits. In fact, the Tigers have not won without Mavraides scoring at least 10, going 6-1 when he reaches that number and 0-3 when he does not.
Princeton will continue its string of four games in eight days Saturday at 2 p.m. at Saint Joseph's, where it will face the Hawks for the first time overall since the fall of 2001 and the first time at Saint Joseph's since the 1994-95 season.
From there, Princeton will travel to Maine for the rescheduled game Monday before visiting Marist Wednesday in the Tigers' final contest before the exam break.