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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Northeastern
Players Mentioned
Men's Hoops Takes Control in Second Half to Beat Northeastern
December 18, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Ian Hummer led all scorers with 20 points while three other Princeton (6-6) players were also in double figures as Patrick Saunders had 13, T.J. Bray scored 12 and Mack Darrow added 10.
The diversification of the offense was something that Mitch Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton men's basketball has been aiming to accomplish.
"This is not 'Ian and the other guys,'" Henderson said. "We're not that team at all. Ian does so much for us and the guys on the team know that too, but I was really pleased with the way (Bray and Saunders) in particular and Brendan Connolly started to assert themselves. They showed that they're a huge piece of this team too. It's what we're capable of."
Saunders' 13 points were his most since Dec. 22, 2010 at Towson, when he scored 15, and Bray's 12 were a career high after he had a then-career best 11 at Rider last time out.
The senior, Saunders, had six of the 15 points during the key early second-half run.
"I think that the key to the game really was the start of the second half, Patrick's two threes, which gave us a bit of a cushion, and then the free throws down the stretch for us," Henderson said.
The game is Princeton's second-to-last before a week-long holiday break. Princeton will travel to Siena (3-7) for a 7 p.m. game Thursday.
Northeastern (3-5) lost its fourth in a row despite holding a 34-30 lead at the break. Princeton opened the second half on a 15-2 run to take a nine-point lead and didn't trail the rest of the afternoon. The largest Tiger lead was 11 at 62-51 with 3:25 to play on a Hummer dunk.
Princeton shot a season-high 54.3 percent from the field on the game including 66.7 percent in the second half, bettering Northeastern's even 50 percent clip from the field on the day while outrebounding the Huskies 27-24.
Complimenting his 20-point game, which gave him 871 for his career, Hummer had a career-high five steals along with six assists to give him 21 helpers over the last four games, half his season total of 42.
Darrow, in his third double-digit scoring game of the season, had five assists without a turnover to give him 34 on the season with just 11 giveaways.
Jonathan Lee, Northeastern's leading scorer on the season at 14.6 points per game heading into the contest, was held to his average at 14 points as one of three Huskies in double figures along with Reggie Spencer (10) and Quincy Ford (13).
Princeton will have four more games before the start of Ivy League play on Jan. 13, with a two-game Florida trip against Florida State and Florida A&M following the Siena game and the annual non-Division I game against The College of New Jersey to come on Jan. 8.
"We're improving, but that's the focus of the whole program," Henderson said. "I don't think we're looking at the record as much as what are we going to look like on January 13th when we hit the league? We want to be playing our best basketball (then). We've still got a little ways to go."