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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Presbyterian
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Presbyterian Defeats Men's Basketball 69-67 in CBE Finale
November 25, 2010 | Men's Basketball
In a game that neither team led by more than seven points, the Blue Hose held on for a 69-67 win over the Tigers to close the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic subregional at James Madison.
Princeton, 2-3 overall, finished 1-2 at the event, with the two losses coming by a total of three points and both coming down to the last possession.
The loss left the Tigers in a familiar position, though the team's recent history has shown anything can happen with 25 games still to play. Princeton has stood at 2-3 after five games in all four of head coach Sydney Johnson's years, but the final victory total has climbed annually from six to 13 to 22 wins.
Johnson knows the season can go in any direction from here.
"I think that we have more in us," Johnson said. "I think that we can be a better team than tonight, but we just weren't. I'm disappointed by that and we just have to address it as a coaching staff and as players to respond to all that."
Where Princeton had a poorer second half from the field than it did in the first half for the fourth time in five games, with the Duke game as the exception, the Blue Hose made half their attempts after the break after already shooting 48.3% in the first half.
That shortcoming didn't sit well with either Davis or Hummer.
"On the defensive end, we weren't very good at all, so we definitely lacked in that," Hummer said.
"We just got outworked. That's something we can control," Davis added. "When your shot's not falling, that's one thing, but when the other team, your opponent, outworks you, you have to live with that."
While Princeton had the ball at the end, the situation didn't allow for a good look. The Tigers had 2.4 seconds to go end-to-end and Kareem Maddox's attempt from near the half-court line left his hands after the final buzzer went off.
Princeton took its last lead with 28 seconds to go when Davis buried a three-pointer to put the Tigers ahead 68-67 and give him 23 points for the night, his most since putting 23 on Lafayette last December.
Davis has scored more than that only twice, piling up 25 in his collegiate debut against Cenral Michigan in November 2008 and a career high of 27 at Manhattan a month later.
Hummer's 24 points upped his career high by seven, reached most recently in this season's opener against Rutgers, while his 14 rebounds bettered his career best in that category by five.
The 14 boards were the most for any Tiger since Zach Finley grabbed 15 against Penn in February 2009.
Hummer had seven straight points to rally the Tigers from a seven-point deficit with less than four minutes to go before the teams spent the final 80 seconds battling it out possession by possession.
Presbyterian's (2-4) Pierre Miller, one of four Blue Hose players in double-figures with 11 points while Al'Lonzo Coleman led with 17 points, sunk both free throws to put Presbyterian ahead by one.
After each team missed critical free throws, Davis hit his clutch three-pointer, but a Dan Mavraides three-point miss after Coleman had given Presbyterian a 68-67 lead with 16 seconds to go necessitated a Tiger foul during the final few ticks of the clock.
Presbyterian's Josh Johnson then split his attempts from the line, and following a timeout, Princeton's last-gasp attempt ran out of clock.
While the Tigers will have three days away from competition, including the Thanksgiving holiday, a Siena team with a deceiving 1-3 record will come to Jadwin Gym Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip, two days after opening league play at nearby Rider.
Two of the Saints' three losses have come to teams currently in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll, Minnesota and Butler.