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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
The College of New Jersey
Players Mentioned
Men's Basketball Defeats TCNJ 73-40 to End Finals Break
January 23, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Princeton (12-4) has won all 24 post-finals break games against Division II and III schools since the Tigers began playing non-Division I teams to shake off the finals rust in 1986. Three of those wins have now come against TCNJ (3-14), with the previous two by margins of nine and 10 in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
The game served its purpose, senior tri-captain Dan Mavraides said.
"We took a couple weeks off for finals, but we practiced hard, we got better. We've been prepating for the Ivy League already," Mavraides said. "This was a game to get us back into feeling 40 minutes, playing together, executing in a game-time situation."
Kareem Maddox led the Tigers with 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting and 12 boards for his second double-double of the season after a 30-point, 10-rebound game on Nov. 28 at Jadwin against Siena.
Douglas Davis was also in double figures with 12 points for the Tigers as he continues his run for 1,000 career points, now standing at 938.
The game was tied at 18-18 with 10:44 to go in the first half when Princeton went on a 15-2 run to take a 33-20 lead with less than two minutes before the break.
TCNJ was within nine points early in the second half on a Dan Bucher layup to make it 36-27 less than two minutes into the period but came no closer. Princeton's largest lead was 33 points on two occasions inside the last five minutes, including the final score.
Donovan Smalls led TCNJ with 13 points while Steve Siracusa had 12 points and a co-team-high five rebounds.
Maddox said the second half, in which Princeton used a 22-2 run over nearly 10 minutes to take its first 30-point lead with six minutes to go, had value for the Tigers.
"At that point, you're playing against the game," Maddox said. "You're trying to get better at what you do, executing Xs and Os. You can really fine tune things despite (being) up by 20 or 25 points."
Princeton improved at both ends of the court after the break, holding TCNJ to 21.7% shooting (5 of 23) in the second half after the Lions shot 46.2% (12 of 26) before halftime. Princeton hit 16 of 28 attempts (57.1%) in the second half after already putting in a solid first half at the offensive end, making 15 of 32 (46.9%).
"We were not sharp to begin the game," Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of men's basketball, said. "That was clear. (TCNJ) came out ready to play, and that was good."
Maddox, a senior tri-captain, agreed with Johnson's assessment.
"It took a little while to get into it, but I think we came out and shook off a little bit of that rust," Maddox said.
The Tigers' struggles from beyond the arc continued from the last pre-finals game against Marist, when Princeton went 3 of 18 from distance. After a 2-for-12 first half, Princeton made 4 of 12 in the second half with four players contributing. Davis, Bobby Foley, Will Barrett and Ben Hazel each hit a 3-pointer to help close out the win.
All 15 available Tigers played, and John Comfort (four points) and Hazel (seven points) picked up their first points of the season while freshman Tom Noonan saw his first collegiate action.
The second half provided Johnson the chance to see such players in game situations who usually don't get that opportunity.
"We feel good about our entire roster," Johnson said. "There is a little bit of getting certain guys out there who haven't played as much, but there are some guys that we're trying to see, even at this point in the season, if they can help us in the Ivy League."
The Tigers will open Ivy League play Friday at home against Brown with a 7 p.m. tip before Yale visits Saturday at 6 p.m. Yale, Harvard and Columbia co-lead the Ivy at 2-0 after sweeping travel partners Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell while Princeton was on the finals break.