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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Saint Joseph's
Players Mentioned
Men's Basketball Wins at Saint Joseph's, 70-62 (with video)
January 02, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Wednesday's three-point victory over Wagner, seeking just its third victory on the season, showed the Tigers would not turn the 13 days away from competition leading up to that game into an excuse.
The Saint Joseph's victory, which saw four Tigers reach double figures led by 17 from Douglas Davis, showed Princeton would not let a packed gym become a reason to shrink, either.
The win continued the current paths of two teams going in different directions. While Princeton has won five in a row to improve to 7-4, the Hawks, who started the season 3-0, have lost eight of their last nine to drop to 4-8 on the season.
Video: Sydney Johnson, Douglas Davis, Pawel Buczak and Dan Mavraides in the postgame press conference.
Princeton's five-game win streak is its longest since the seven-game run last season that turned a 2-8 start into a 9-8 record including four Ivy League wins. That streak started after the new year, whereas the Tigers have gotten a head start this season on turning things around. Princeton has not lost since falling at Rutgers on Dec. 3.
Saint Joseph's never led after an Idris Hilliard bucket 38 seconds into the game gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Princeton went on a 12-2 run to take an eight-point lead before the first media timeout, but Saint Joseph's battled back in what became a back-and-forth contest.
Princeton led by 14 at 39-25 less than two minutes into the second half, but the Hawks went on a 14-2 run to bring it to a two-point game. Again, the Tigers had a double-digit lead at 11 points with 1:13 to play, but Saint Joseph's managed one last comeback attempt.
A 12-3 run, capped by an Irwin Bryant three-pointer, made it a two-point game with 24 seconds left and Princeton headed to the line. Dan Mavraides, who split his attempts from the line on the possession before Bryant's big bucket, sunk them both, effectively icing it for Princeton.
The Tigers out-dueled Saint Joseph's from the floor and on the glass, hitting 24 of 51 (47.1 percent) attempts from the field to 22 of 59 (37.3 percent) for the Hawks. Princeton's 41-32 rebounding advantage was its biggest margin in that category since Feb. 7, 2009, when the Tigers outrebounded Columbia by 15.
Mavraides, who finished with 16 points, led Princeton on the boards with seven, while Pawel Buczak scored a season-high 14 points while grabbing six rebounds. Ian Hummer had his third double-digit scoring game in the last seven contests with 10 points.
Princeton will continue its run of four games in eight days at Maine Monday before visiting Marist Wednesday, leading into the exam break.