.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Harvard
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
Players Mentioned
Men's Hoops Takes 56-53 Win at Harvard (with video)
February 06, 2010 | Men's Basketball
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - It's three games into the Ivy League season, and the Princeton men's basketball team remains undefeated on the circuit. Also intact is Sydney Johnson's perspective of where he and his team are.
"I've been very fortunate to have enough experience in this league to understand that four games in (after this weekend) means nothing," said Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton men's basketball. "Let's talk about eight, nine games in and let's see where we are."
All three of Princeton's wins have come on the road, the last being tonight's 56-53 win at Harvard, a team Johnson has beaten four of five times since taking over as head coach in 2007-08.
Johnson often speaks about how difficult it is to win on the road in the Ivy League, but Princeton's 3-0 road record in the Ivy thus far hasn't skewed his perspective either.
Video: Sydney Johnson, Dan Mavraides, Marcus Schroeder and Kareem Maddox in the postgame interview room.
"We knew we were going to have to go on the road," Johnson said. "We're just trying to grind it out."
The Tigers certainly ground it out at Harvard, a game Princeton led by 14 with less than fivve minutes left yet had to win possession by possession in the final minute.
Princeton had a 51-43 lead with less than a minute left, but saw three-pointers by Harvard leading scorer Jeremy Lin, Kyle Casey and Christian Webster within a 44-second span. Webster hit the last of those and was fouled in the process, allowing him to complete a four-point play that made it 54-53 with 12 seconds left.
Kareem Maddox, who led Princeton (12-5, 3-0 Ivy) with 14 points, nailed both free throws at the other end to put the Tigers up by three, and Princeton didn't let Lin get a clear shot on Harvard's last possession. Lin's desperation three-pointer hit the front of the rim.
Maddox's season-high 14 points co-led Princeton and gave Maddox his first double-digit scoring game, while his eight rebounds were also a season-best and a team-best against the Crimson.
It hasn't been Princeton's style of late to have one player dominate the game, and neither Maddox nor his co-leading scorer on the night, Dan Mavraides, did so. Instead, eight of the nine Tigers who played had a field goal, and six contributed to Princeton's 30-27 rebounding edge.
Most importantly, every Tiger contributed to holding Harvard to its lowest shooting percentage in any game this season, 36.0 percent. The Crimson were coming off their previous season-low field-goal percentage at Cornell, 36.1 percent, and Harvard's (14-5, 3-2) two lowest scoring games of the season have been the last two.
For another day at least, the Tigers will hold on to their Ivy-undefeated record until they head to Dartmouth for a 7 p.m. tip Saturday. More league showdowns loom down the road, but Johnson's and the Tigers' way is to play one game at a time.