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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Yale
Players Mentioned
Tigers On the Mark Against Yale, 82-58 (with video)
February 20, 2010 | Men's Basketball
"I just want to keep everything in the proper perspective," said Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach. "We made a lot of shots, so the offense looks that much better. But we've had games where we've executed the same way, the ball just didn't go in."
An 8-0 run over two minutes beginning at the 16:12 mark of the first half gave Princeton a nine-point lead at 16-7, and the Tigers built from there.
The advantage was up to 18 just before halftime and grew as high as 25, giving Princeton its largest margin of victory over its longtime rival from New Haven since 1999 and its most points against the Bulldogs (10-16, 4-5 Ivy) since 1973.
Video: Sydney Johnson, Pawel Buczak and Patrick Saunders in the postgame press conference.
Center Pawel Buczak gave Princeton that 18-point lead on a banked three-pointer to beat the shot clock inside the final minute of the half.
"When I'm banking threes with two seconds left on the shot clock, you know it's a good night," said Buczak, who also had a career-high seven assists. "We're always confident in our offense that we can get good shots. We just want to keep doing that."
Those were among the highlights, but with six games left in a season that could be an even more promising one than it has been already, the next game comes quickly.
"I think we've worked really hard to put us in this spot, so we're definitely going to appreciate it and enjoy it," Johnson said. "At the same time, we're just going game by game."
Next for Princeton is a visit from Brown, which comes to Jadwin Gym for a 6 p.m. Saturday tip after beating Penn at The Palestra, where the Tigers won earlier this week.
Dan Mavraides had a career-high 24 points in the win over the Quakers and followed it with 20 on 8-of-14 shooting for his first back-to-back 20-point games in three years as a Tiger.
The win allowed Princeton (16-6, 7-1 Ivy) to keep pace with a Cornell team that dealt Harvard its third loss of the season Friday night in Cambridge, 79-70.
The Big Red were also the last team to play in Jadwin Gym, holding on for a three-point victory last Saturday night to end Princeton's Ivy-undefeated run.
"We were just kind of motivated by the loss to work even harder to try and turn it around," said Patrick Saunders, who scored 14 points. After four scoreless Ivy games, Saunders has warmed up with a total of 26 points over the last three contests.
It's been quite a run so far for the Tigers, who have won seven of their first eight Ivy games for the first time since 2004.
The resurgence has brought out more Princeton students to root on their peers. Undeterred by Saturday's narrow defeat before Princeton's largest crowd in six years, the student section opposite the visitor bench was packed again, inviting an in-person postgame thank-you from the Tiger players.
"Coach Johnson suggested that we go over and thank them because that's one of the best crowds we've seen, especially in the student section," Buczak said. "They showed up for our game against Cornell and we're really impressed that they came again. Hopefully they'll continue to come."