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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Bucknell
Players Mentioned
Men's Hoops Comes up Short at Bucknell 62-56
November 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
The loss, which opened the Lewisburg Subregional of the TicketCity Legends Classic, dropped Princeton to 1-4 on the season. Three of the Tigers' four losses have come by six points or fewer.
"I think that there's still large amounts of improvement left for us," Mitch Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton men's basketball, said. "The very nice thing is we get to come right back and play again tomorrow. We're excited about that."
Comfort, who had not hit a 3-pointer since his freshman year, drained three 3-pointers in a span of just more than three minutes in the first half to turn a 10-9 deficit into an 18-14 Tiger lead.
Princeton had trailed by as much as 10-2 before a 13-0 run, made up of points by Will Barrett, Hazel and Comfort, erased that early deficit.
Bucknell (3-2) caught Princeton at 21-21 and took a 25-24 lead into the halftime break.
Princeton's last lead was at 33-31 with less than 14 minutes to play before free throws from Mike Muscala - who led all scorers with 25 points - tied the game and a Muscala 3-pointer 40 seconds later gave Bucknell the lead for good.
"Bucknell is a very good team and very disciplined, highly efficient on both ends of the floor, and we wanted to be the same way tonight," Henderson said. "I felt like for parts of the game we were, but Muscala is a very good player. When our two centers can't handle him, it's a long night for us. We just had no answer for him. The only time they didn't score was when he was on the bench."
Ian Hummer led Princeton with 13 points as the Tigers had three players in double figures for just the second time this season. Bucknell held Douglas Davis, who had scored in double digits in each of the four previous games this season, to five points on 2-of-6 shooting. Comfort's 11 points and Hazel's 10 points set career bests.
A game after putting up eight 3-point attempts in a one-point home loss to Elon, the Tigers put up 32 tries from beyond the arc, the team's most since Feb. 9, 2007 against Harvard. That night, Princeton hoisted 38 tries in a 74-68 overtime win in which 32 of the attempts came in regulation.
Tonight, Princeton made nine of those, with three from Comfort, as the Tigers' bid to end Bucknell's 14-game winning streak at Sojka Pavilion came up short.
Princeton had won five in a row against the Bison dating back to 1997 including a 66-55 win last year in Harrisonburg, Va., in November, long before each team went on to win its league and make the NCAA Tournament. Bucknell is the preseason Patriot League favorite once again.
The Tigers will continue their play in the TicketCity Legends Classic Saturday at 2 p.m. against another 2011 NCAA Tournament team, Morehead State.