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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Buffalo
Players Mentioned
In First Win, Men's Hoops Deals Buffalo First Defeat
November 19, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Ian Hummer led Princeton with a double-double on 18 points and 12 rebounds while Douglas Davis chipped in 16 points as the Tigers handed Buffalo their first loss of the season in a 61-53 victory.
Princeton never trailed and led by as much as 25 late in the first half, holding Buffalo to 20 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes.
"We wanted to be very aggressive and on the attack in the defensive end," Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach, said. "The story of the game really was the first half, but we saw some things in ourselves in the second half that need to be corrected."
The Bulls (2-1) roared back after the break to outscore Princeton 37-24 and turn the tables on the Tigers in the shooting percentage statistic, as Princeton (1-2) made just 26.3 percent of its shots in the second half.
Though Hummer and Davis again comprised a majority of Princeton's points as the duo has in all three of the team's games this season, Mack Darrow became the first Tiger outside of those two to reach double digits, hitting 4 of 8 from the field and chipping in two free throws for 11 points. T.J. Bray added a season-high seven points.
Henderson said the team is working on finding other outlets on offense.
"Between T.J. (Bray), Brendan (Connolly) and Patrick Saunders, and even Will (Barrett) - he didn't score tonight, but I liked his two looks - I think we're going to be more balanced than we look right now, over time," Henderson said. "I feel like the balance is going to come. Obviously, we can't do this all year, so it'll have to come at some point."
Just a week ago on the same Carril Court in Jadwin Gym, Wagner spoiled Princeton's Ivy League championship and NCAA Tournament banner raising by taking a 16-point victory from the Tigers. Since then, Princeton led most of the night at North Carolina State during the week before ultimately falling by two. Then came the season's first win Saturday.
"It's easy to build off of a loss, but I much prefer to build off of a win," Henderson said. "We feel very confident that (we) could be a good team. This is a good Buffalo team. It's a very good rebounding team. What we wanted to do right away was go right at them, and I think we did that nicely."
Rebounding and turnovers were areas of concern for the Tigers after allowing double-digit offensive rebounds to each of their first two opponents and a 40-24 overall deficit to N.C. State Wednesday night. Against Buffalo, Princeton matched the Bulls in overall rebounds 40-40, while Buffalo just cracked double digits in offensive boards with 11.
A week after committing 28 turnovers in the Wagner loss before dropping that number to 11 against the Wolfpack, the giveaways ticked up to 16. Ten of those came in the second half.
The tests will continue to be frequent throughout the month of November for Princeton, which has eight games in 19 days to close the month. The Tigers have grown up fast, Henderson said.
"It's a different group than a week ago," the coach said. "For instance, T.J. has played more minutes in the last week than he has played in a long time. I think there's improvement and especially defensively."
Princeton's next game, against Elon, will tip at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Jadwin Gym.