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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Central Florida
Players Mentioned
No. 19/21 UCF Survives Men's Basketball's Upset Bid
December 31, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Holding onto its undefeated standing, UCF survived an inspired effort by the Tigers in the championship game of the UCF Holiday Classic, winning 68-62.
Princeton (10-4) narrowly missed what would have been its first win over an AP-ranked team since 1997, scoring the second-most points against the Knights (13-0) in their undefeated run this season. Only in-state rival Miami scored more, losing 84-78 less than two weeks ago.
Dan Mavraides led the Tigers with 20 points, his most since scoring a career-high 26 in the season opener against Rutgers. Mavraides and Ian Hummer, who had 19 points against the Knights, were named to the all-tournament team.
Mavraides, a senior tri-captain, has helped lift the team over the course of his career from a 6-23 finish in 2007-08. The UCF loss is just Princeton's ninth in the last 39 games dating back to last season.
"We know we're a very good basketball team. We know we have the parts and the potential," Mavraides said. "We're not where we need to be. We have a lot of work to do still. I think everyone on the team knows we can play with pretty much anyone in the country if we stick to our principles and the effort's there."
Douglas Davis passed two milestones with his 14 points and two 3-pointers, reaching the last century mark before 1,000 and passing his coach on the career 3-pointers list. While moving up to 911 career points, Davis took over fourth place ahead of Sydney Johnson's 162 3-pointers, now with 163.
Marcus Jordan, the all-tournament team MVP for UCF, led all scorers with 26 points on 7-of-12 shooting including canning 11 of 13 from the free-throw line.
Jordan earned the MVP honors in the second half, scoring 22 of his points in the final 20 minutes, hitting 6 of 10 shots from the field. Mavraides had 18 of his 20 in the first half, while Hummer's output picked up after the break, getting 11 of his 19 in the second half.
"I think (UCF) probably had to make an adjustment or else (Mavraides) was going to have a career high," Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton basketball, said. "They made an adjustment. I felt like he still got some other guys involved and made some plays for himself as well. We have to have a balanced attack to be good and he kind of led the way the first half."
Hummer was also perfect from the free-throw line, making all five attempts as Princeton made 14 of 15 on the game one night after making just 9 of 19 in a two-point win over Northeastern.
Princeton scored the game's first eight points and led by eight at the half, holding UCF to 37% shooting and forcing 10 turnovers while committing just four of its own before the break.
But a Knights team that entered the game shooting 50.6% from the field on the season warmed up after the break. Including scoring the second half's first four points to halve the lead almost immediately, UCF went on an 11-2 run to take its first lead of the game with 14:56 to play, and the teams were never more than one possession apart until the final two minutes.
Princeton's last lead was at 57-56 with 4:06 to play, coming during a 6-0 run for UCF that ended up giving the Knights the lead for good.
The Knights also turned up the heat on the defensive end, as the Tigers made 7 of 20 (35%) from the field in the second half as Princeton's lead, which was as much as 10 late in the first half, slipped away.
No statistic, however, was more of a factor than rebounding. UCF's big men, 7-footer Tom Herzog and 6-8 Keith Clanton, helped the Knights to a 39-22 rebounding edge with 12 and 10 boards, respectively. Twelve of those 39 rebounds were offensive, leading to eight second-chance points for the Knights and none for Princeton.
Herzog and Clanton also helped to clog the middle on the defensive end, as the Knights didn't let Kareem Maddox, who has had two 30-point games this season, beat them. Maddox had one field goal try in the first half and finished 1 for 7 from the field while finishing with five points.
Ever the competitor, Johnson said the missed opportunity stung.
"Losing is painful and I don't like it and I hope that they don't like it," Johnson said. "It's not a feeling that we want to get used to. I think that we have a nice team, but we want to be a little bit better than nice. We came up short tonight. There's no moral victory or anything like that."
The Tigers will have six days to rebound from the near-miss before hosting Marist next Wednesday in Princeton's first game at Jadwin Gym since Dec. 5.