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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Rutgers
Players Mentioned
Hummer's Late Layup Beats Rutgers at RAC
December 08, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Mitch Henderson '98, now the head coach, was less than a year away from beginning the first of his 11 seasons as an assistant coach at Northwestern. Assistant coach Brian Earl '99 had his Princeton degree for about six months.
All three men were in the RAC Wednesday night as Hummer drove for a layup with 2.7 seconds left that gave Princeton a 59-57 lead. After a Rutgers desperation attempt from half-court touched only the outside of the net, it became the final score.
"This was huge for us, and we needed this badly because we're starting a pretty brutal road trip," Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach, said after the first game of 12 straight against Division I opponents on the road. "We needed this in a bad way. I'm very happy for the guys that we had success on what was really 30 minutes played well and then 10 minutes not so well."
For the first time since 1999, erasing a losing streak of five games, Princeton (4-5) defeated the Scarlet Knights (4-5) on their home floor. Coupled with last year's overtime win at Jadwin Gym, Princeton defeated Rutgers back-to-back for the first time since January and November 1997, when Henderson was in his final two seasons.
Both of Henderson's head coaches at Princeton, Pete Carril and Bill Carmody, were in attendance, Carmody sporting an orange Jadwin Jungle t-shirt as his Northwestern team is on a week-and-a-half break from games.
"I won two games here with both those guys as head coaches and one of them as an assistant," Henderson said. "It was great to see both Bill and Coach Carril in the stands. I think Bill was wearing some orange, so that was a good sign."
But with less than seven minutes to go in the game, it looked like no heroics would be needed. Princeton had a 17-point lead given by a split of free throws from Mack Darrow with 7:58 to play.
Rutgers responded with a 20-3 run in a span of five-plus minutes to tie the game at 52-52 with 2:33 to go. The Scarlet Knights had never led as Princeton began the game on an 8-0 run, denying Rutgers its first points until 12:57 remained in the first half.
The Scarlet Knights and their fans, in a building with a reputation for noise, sensed the opportunity and twice held brief one-point leads.
The second of those leads came when Dane Miller, who had also given Rutgers its first lead with a pair of free throws moments earlier, put the Scarlet Knights ahead 56-55 with 47 seconds to play.
At the other end, Hummer sank two free throws to put Princeton back ahead, and Rutgers' Eli Carter split a pair to tie it at 57-57 with 19 seconds left.
That gave Princeton the ball back with at least overtime to play for, should it choose to hold for the last shot. After Princeton whittled the time down while seeking a good look and eventually finding Hummer, the junior drove to the basket and had his finger-roll fall to give the Tigers the final two-point lead.
With a game-high 21 points, Hummer passed the 800 mark for his career and now has 812. With 16 points, Douglas Davis moved into sole possession of 11th place on the Princeton career list, now at 1,223. He is 16 points short of Brian Taylor '84 for 10th place with 1,239. Freshman Denton Koon had two more dunks on his way to 10 points for his second straight double-digit scoring game.
Princeton won despite being out-rebounded 37-28 overall and 14-8 on the offensive glass. The Tigers made up for that by having three fewer turnovers than the Scarlet Knights, 18-15, and equaling Rutgers' 20 field goals on four fewer attempts. Each team left five shots at the charity stripe.
The next game on Princeton's road trip will come Saturday at Drexel in the Tigers' first visit to the Philadelphia school since 1930.