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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Duke
No. 1 Duke Deals Men's Basketball's First Defeat
November 15, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Video: Dan Mavraides, Sydney Johnson and Ian Hummer in the postgame press conference.
DURHAM, N.C. - With seven days away from competition before its next game, the Princeton men's basketball team will have ample time to work on its lessons from Sunday afternoon at Duke.
Facing the nation's preseason No. 1 team proved as tough a test in reality as it suggested on paper, even for a Tiger bunch that was picked first in the Ivy League media poll.
To open its season and the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, Duke handed Princeton its first loss, 97-60, two days after the Tigers opened with an overtime victory over local rival Rutgers.
"Obviously the opportunity to face the defending champ is pretty special," Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson said. "We wanted for it to come out differently."
It had come out differently for Johnson the last time he faced the defending national champion. Johnson was a junior captain on the 1996 team that upset UCLA in the first round of that year's NCAA Tournament.
A New Jersey native helped derail the team from his home state in his collegiate debut, as Kyrie Irving, from West Orange, N.J., scored 17 points and had a game-high nine assists.
Duke's two holdovers from the last meeting between the teams, a 83-61 Blue Devil win on Nov. 19, 2007 at the Maui Invitational, made big contributions with Nolan Smith's 22 leading all scorers and Kyle Singler, a preseason All-America selection by the Associated Press, pitching in 16.
Even though Princeton committed 17 turnovers in the first half, the Tiger deficit was just six points with less than two minutes to go before the break. A T.J. Bray three-pointer made it 34-28, but Duke scored the half's last eight points and kept on rolling after the intermission.
Duke made two-thirds of its attempts from the field in the second half, going 20 for 30 to increase its lead and put the game away. Princeton finished with 27 turnovers, its most since committing that many in a loss to Army last November at Jadwin Gym.
"Turnovers really hurt us," Princeton's Ian Hummer said. "One thing I'm going to take away from this is we've got to take care of the ball."
Dan Mavraides, who had a career-high 26 in the Rutgers game, led Princeton again with 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting. Hummer, in his second game as a starter, added 14 points with a team-high seven rebounds.
The Tigers will continue their participation in the CBE Classic a week from Monday, on Nov. 22, with three games in three days at the tournament's Harrisonburg (Va.) subregional against host James Madison, Bucknell and Presbyterian.
