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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Brown
Players Mentioned
Men's Hoops Stifles Brown, 63-46
January 30, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Where Princeton has gone from there has varied widely. Because of that, Johnson needs no reminders about how long the Ivy season can last in what is actually a short period of time.
For one game, Johnson and the Tigers will take their 63-46 victory over Brown, a smothering effort defensively in which Princeton held the Bears to four field goals in the first half and rode the momentum from there.
"I think we probably disrupted them a little bit, but then there were some plays where they're driving to the rim and stuff is rimming out," Johnson said. "I think we were a little bit fortunate, to be honest."
Douglas Davis' 16 points all came in the opening 19 minutes, helping Princeton to a 40-18 lead at the break. Even though Princeton's leading scorer didn't score in the second half, what the Tigers accomplished against Brown's top point producer, Matt Mullery, more than made up for it.
Mullery finished 2 for 8 from the field for 10 points, six of which came from the free-throw line.
For Johnson, Mullery's stat line came as a surprise, and a good one.
"Ok, 2 for 8," Johnson said as he examined the box score. "I didn't know that. He causes a lot of problems for people. I didn't know that we were able to do that. He's really good, so I guess we caught him on an off night."
As modest as the coach's words were after the game, Princeton brought the physicality necessary to stifle Brown.
The Tigers were whistled for a season-high 24 fouls, or twice as many field goals as Brown had. That helped translate to sending the Bears to the line for 28 free-throw attempts and a souvenir for rookie Ian Hummer, who was called on to spell Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley after early foul trouble.
Hummer wore a bandage across the bridge of his nose after receiving an errant elbow. He also came away with 10 points for his fifth double-digit point total of the season and for the first time in back-to-back games.
"(It) just cracked me straight in the nose," Hummer said of the elbow. "For a second, I thought it was broken. It was bleeding non-stop."
The bleeding eventually stopped, both for Hummer and for the Bears (7-13, 1-2 Ivy), who were able to trim a Princeton lead that was as much as 26 midway through the second half down to 17 at the final margin.
Davis and Hummer were two of 10 Princeton players who contributed to the team's point total.
"We were just clicking," Davis said. "If somebody would run out at Marcus, he would swing it, Dan would swing it, I would swing it, and we just had a lot of open looks."
It may not go that way for the Tigers (10-5, 1-0) every night as the Ivy League season goes along, and Princeton's win at Brown was its first for anyone currently in an orange and black jersey. The last time the Tigers won in Providence was 2005, one year after Princeton's last sweep of the Yale-Brown trip in 2004.
"We're in Ivy League play, and it's going to be tough," Davis said. "I think we stepped up to the challenge tonight."
The challenge going forward will be whether the Tigers can rise to the occasion tomorrow night, and on the next several Friday and Saturday nights, too.