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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
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Men's Hoops Pushes Cornell, Falls 48-45 (with video)
February 14, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Cornell, the two-time defending Ivy League champions, showed why they're getting the respect and attention from the national college basketball media. Princeton, however, made its case well.
It remains true that no team other than Princeton has held Cornell to fewer than 50 points in three years, but the Tigers needed a little more on the offensive end in a 48-45 loss in front of 5,775 fans Saturday night.
"I was really, really happy with the effort from our team, and certainly they should feel good about their effort," said Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of men's basketball. "It was just a shame we couldn't win the game."
Video: Sydney Johnson, Zach Finley and Douglas Davis in the postgame press conference.
The Tigers, who had 39 of their 45 points scored by non-seniors, lost by a possession to a team that had 39 of its 48 points scored by seniors. The Big Red also have the benefit of having two straight championship runs through the 14-game Ivy sprint, something Princeton hasn't done once since 2004.
With Princeton rolling in at 5-0 in the Ivy for the first time in eight years and Cornell just having taken its lumps with a surprising 15-point loss at Penn the night before, the Princeton campus and community answered the call.
There were people lining the highest row of the building. Students created a packed section of black, whether from shirts or paint, and made themselves heard. Jadwin, which has seen plenty of jammed-to-the-rafters nights, rocked once again.
"They put themselves in this position to have a big game like that," Johnson said of his players creating the occasion for the atmosphere. "They ought to take a lot of pride in that. The next step is to win a game like that."
It's impossible to predict accurately what will happen the rest of the way, with six games left for Cornell (21-4, 7-1 Ivy), including four on the road, and eight remaining for the Tigers (14-6, 5-1). But even though Princeton fell behind in the race for this year's Ivy League crown, there were plenty of reasons for optimism.
Princeton held Cornell, which entered the weekend ranked No. 6 in the nation in assists per game with a 17.4 average, to four assists tonight. No team other than Princeton has held Cornell to that low of a total since 2007. No team other than Princeton has held Cornell to below 50 points since 2006.
The Big Red also entered the weekend ranked No. 22 in the coaches' poll and receiving the second-most votes outside the AP Top 25.
Still, as a coach of a team worthy of chasing an Ivy championship would, Johnson saw room for improvement.
"We have a pretty solid defensive approach. It just seemed like a couple things that they did were a little too easy," Johnson said. "There were some drives right at the rim. That's not something that we allow too often."
Unlike last season's 20-point Princeton win over Cornell in Jadwin, the Tigers never took control of the game. Princeton spent the evening trying to keep up and battling to be ahead at the end.
Douglas Davis led Princeton with 20 points, breaking the 600 mark for his career, and gave Princeton its only lead of the night on a three-pointer with 14:23 to play that put the Tigers ahead 30-28.
Cornell had two two-possession leads in the last four minutes, the first on a bucket by Jeff Foote with 3:55 left and the second on a Ryan Wittman three-pointer that put the Tigers in a 44-38 hole with 1:38 to play.
"You're never going to really totally wipe guys out," Johnson said of defending Cornell's Foote and Wittman. "It wasn't a tough enough 13 (points for Wittman), to be honest. If we can just make key guys really work for their stuff and be solid elsewhere, we'll be fine. It was just four, five, six possessions there where it was just too easy."
Davis scored Princeton's last 11 points of the game and had the ball in his hands on the final possession.
"We've got some decent options. Obviously, Doug is one of them," Johnson said. "We try to get him good shots, and what he does well is he lets it come to him. If he doesn't have a shot, he gets other people involved and that's a pretty effective way of playing."
The Big Red, which would have been in danger of losing its hold on the Ivy League title had it fell two games behind Princeton, escaped after it held Davis and the Tigers on the final possession.
"They looked like they won the Ivy League championship," Johnson said of the immediate post-game scene on the court from Cornell. "They were pretty excited to beat us. That's how we want people to feel. We want people to respect that jersey."
Through the first six games of the Ivy season, the Tigers have done just about all they can to earn that respect.