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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
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Maddox Leads Tigers to Win at Cornell
February 13, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Was it easy? Hardly.
One of those seniors, Kareem Maddox, scored Princeton's final four points and had a huge blocked shot in the final seconds to save Saturday night's game with a 57-55 win.
The victory breaks a four-game losing streak in the last Ivy building in which any of the current Tigers had yet to win.
Maddox led Princeton (19-4, 7-0 Ivy) with a game-high 23 points, hitting 8 of 10 from the field and 7 of 10 from the free-throw line while being credited with four blocked shots in all.
His two baskets in the final two minutes ended a scoreless streak for the Tigers of 3:44 during which Cornell (6-16, 2-6) scored seven straight points to erase a five-point Princeton lead at 53-48 at the 5:41 mark.
Maddox drove to the basket to tie the game at 55-55 with 1:57 to play, and with Princeton holding on for the next-to-last possession of the game, hit a mid-range jumper to put the Tigers ahead 57-55 with 10 seconds left.
"We were up five, we kind of let it get away from us, and then we dug in our heels and kept defending and found a way to win the game," Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach said.
But Maddox wasn't done ensuring that his last visit to Newman Arena would end with a win. Maddox rejected Mark Coury's attempt to tie the game in the closing seconds, and the Tigers escaped when Drew Ferry's 3-point try missed left at the buzzer.
Johnson knows what Maddox can do.
"He can defend. He can cause problems for people offensively," Johnson said. "The last few games, he's been the one who has shared the ball as much as anybody on our team, and that's contagious."
With the win in the books, the historical references continue for the Tigers, who are 7-0 in the Ivy for the first time since 1999. This year's Princeton team is the 30th in Ivy League history to be undefeated at the midway point, and 25 of those teams were Penn (14) or Princeton (11) squads.
The sweep of the Columbia-Cornell trip is also Princeton's first since 2004.
While Princeton was more on-target from the field than Cornell 47.6% to 39.2%, outrebounded the Big Red 31-24, and blocked eight shots to Cornell's four, two key areas kept the Big Red in the game. Princeton also held Cornell to its second-fewest points this season, as only St. Bonaventure, with 54 on Nov. 19, held the Big Red to fewer.
Princeton was a Douglas Davis 3-pointer three minutes into the second half away from ending a 25-year streak of making one from beyond the arc in every game since the shot's inception. The Tigers finished 1 for 8 from distance, and Cornell wasn't much better at 3 of 17.
Cornell also forced 18 turnovers, the most for Princeton since a Dec. 17 game at Wagner that the Tigers won despite also having 18 giveaways.
Maddox was the only Tiger in double figures for Princeton, though Davis and Brendan Connolly were a bucket away with nine and eight points respectively.
Princeton's other two players who are averaging double-digit points this season, Ian Hummer and Dan Mavraides, had nights opposite from Friday's blowout win over Columbia. Hummer had a career-high 25 points against the Lions but was limited to six against the Big Red. Mavraides, saddled with four fouls, was held scoreless after putting in 17 at Columbia.
The road trip will continue next weekend for Princeton, which opened with five straight Ivy League games at home. Yale will welcome the Tigers Friday, followed by a visit to Brown Saturday.