.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Yale
Players Mentioned
Men's Hoops Turns Back Yale, 58-45
January 31, 2010 | Men's Basketball
It could be dismissed as a stereotype of the "Princeton Offense," with the Tigers limiting the number of possessions by working the clock whenever they have the ball, patiently seeking the open shot.
But after this weekend, such a dismissal wouldn't be fair to these Tigers. Princeton completed its first road sweep of Brown and Yale since 2004 with a 58-45 win over the Bulldogs Saturday night.
Princeton (11-5, 2-0 Ivy) will probably be ranked No. 1 in the nation in limiting their opponents' point total when the next NCAA statistics are available in the coming days, and deservedly so. A night after holding Brown to 46 points, Princeton mustered enough to do Yale (8-13, 2-2) a point better.
As well as anyone, senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder knows what that means to this team.
"We understand that defense is probably the more important side of the ball compared to offense," Schroeder said. "We know that sometimes our shots aren't going to go in, but we always have our defense to rely on."
While Princeton's defense held Yale to 35 percent shooting after keeping Brown to 30 percent, the Tigers made better than half of their field goal attempts against the Bulldogs to hold on to a win that was far from secure until late.
After being up by 10 with less than three minutes gone in the second half, Princeton saw Yale claw back to tie at 39-39 and within a point at 41-40 just after the midway point of the half. Right when the Tigers needed it, the 6-11 center Pawel Buczak stepped out and hit a long two-pointer, ending Yale's 11-2 run.
Douglas Davis followed it on the next possession with a three-pointer, contributing to his team-best 13 points. Of the seven Tigers who played, six scored and all of those had at least six points.
Knowing that the big bucket can come from anywhere is something Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton basketball, values.
"There's some emerging, growing chemistry amongst these guys where we can kind of fit different players together and they seem to flow pretty nicely," Johnson said.
A night after holding Brown's leading scorer, Matt Mullery, to just 10 points in the Tigers' 63-46 win, Princeton kept the Ivy League's leading scorer, Yale's Alex Zampier, to 13 points, below his average of 18.1.
"We just didn't seem to give up too many big shots," Johnson said. "I do think that's fair to give us some credit, but we were also fortunate as well."
For the third straight season under Johnson, Princeton ends its first Ivy League weekend undefeated in conference play. The two previous 2-0 starts have led to finishes of eight games below even in the league and two games above, making it too early to tell where Princeton is headed this time.
But as is always the case, the Tigers won't have to wait long for their next test. Next Friday night in Cambridge, the Tigers will see a 14-4 Harvard team eager to prove itself again after a 36-point loss to Cornell Saturday night.