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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Rutgers
Men's Basketball Outlasts Rutgers 78-73 in OT to Open Season
November 13, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Video: Dan Mavraides, Ian Hummer and Sydney Johnson in the postgame press conference.
PRINCETON - It's a new team, Princeton men's basketball head coach Sydney Johnson said Friday night after the Tigers' 78-73 overtime win over Rutgers at Jadwin Gym.
He was talking about his own squad, but he could have been referring to either team.
Rutgers entered having won 10 of its last 11 over its Route 1 rival, this time with a new coach, Mike Rice, and a vastly different roster from last year's 58-44 victory over the Tigers in Piscataway.
The Scarlet Knights returned just 22 of their 58 points from that game, while Princeton lost two of its five starters to graduation in Marcus Schroeder and Pawel Buczak.
In their stead, some of the same names from last year along with a couple of surprises - at least going by the statistics of a season ago - stepped up.
"Our guys get better," Johnson said. "They put their time in. As soon as they stop putting their time in, somebody is going to pass them by."
Brendan Connolly, a sophomore center making his first career start, grabbed 11 rebounds, more than any other Tiger had in any game last season.
"Rutgers was doubling Brendan Connolly, who hasn't played that much in his career, so I think that's a credit to Brendan," Johnson said.
Sophomore Mack Darrow, who played a total of 17 minutes in five games last season, hit the biggest free throws of his career to give Princeton a 76-72 lead with 11 seconds to go in overtime. They were also the only free throws of his career.
"Mack really busted his tail this summer," Johnson said. "He really has kind of helped us out in the preseason in a couple scrimmages and certainly tonight. That's the expectation here. Come to Princeton, get better. That's what it is."
Those two were part of eight free throws the Tigers took in the overtime period, making all eight.
Senior Dan Mavraides had a career-high 26 points, improving Princeton to 6-1 in games in which he scores at least 20. Ian Hummer tied a career high with 17, hitting 8 of 10 from the field.
"I felt pretty good tonight," Mavraides said. "As a shooter, you have your on days, you have your off days. Today, I would say, was one of my on days."
Though Princeton led for the game's first 33 minutes, a Rutgers team still getting used to a revised roster and a new head coach roared back. The Scarlet Knights would go up by as much as four, 63-59, on a Mike Coburn bucket with less than five minutes to play in regulation.
Princeton responded with a 6-2 run, with a three-pointer by Mavraides cutting the four-point lead to one and Hummer scoring the last three points of regulation to tie it. Those came after Rutgers' Austin Johnson had a basket to put his team ahead 65-62 with 1:54 to play in the second half.
For the first time since 1984, Princeton's first game of the season went into overtime, and the extra five minutes belonged to the Tigers.
On the way to defeating Rutgers to end a six-year drought, Princeton held the Scarlet Knights to 2-of-7 shooting in the overtime while making 2 of 3 shots of its own from the field in addition to the perfect 8 for 8 from the line.
"It has been kind of one-sided in the past decade or so," Mavraides said of the annual Rutgers series. "So it means a lot."
Princeton rewarded the largest home crowd at a non-conference game (3,530) in three years - since the 2006 game against Rutgers - with a victory and will now have a short turnaround before facing defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Duke on its home floor Sunday at 5 p.m. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.
