Tigers Beat Dartmouth to Close Home Weekend

Saturday, February 16

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

13-8, 5-3Ivy

Dartmouth

11-13, 2-6Ivy

Dartmouth

Princeton

Richmond Aririguzoh led the Tigers with 18 points in the win over Dartmouth.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

February 16, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Saturday night's weekend finale went down to the final possession in Jadwin, and the Princeton men's basketball team held off Dartmouth, 69-68.

With the win, Princeton improved to 13-8 overall and 5-3 in the Ivy, regaining a two-game edge on Penn and Brown for the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament now with six games to play. Yale remained two up on the Tigers at 7-1 and one up on second-place Harvard at 6-2.

"My freshman year, I feel like there was some separation in the league between the top teams and the bottom teams, and this year, every game is a fight, home or away," Princeton senior Myles Stephens said. "We felt like we had our backs up against the wall. Three game skid, and we have a big, big week next week with Cornell and Columbia coming up, and we want a little bit of momentum going into that, going into the week, so we're happy we came away with this win."

Princeton got out to an 11-2 lead Saturday night before the game was six minutes old, but Dartmouth recovered to score six straight points and kept Princeton within five points the rest of the way.

The Big Green led by as many as five points after the break and was still up four inside of five minutes to go in the game at 61-57, but Princeton scored seven of the next nine points to go up one at 64-63 on a sweep at the line by Richmond Aririguzoh with 2:40 to go.

"He wanted the ball, and I love that," Mitch Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton men's basketball, said. "I thought tonight, you saw what we know from (Aririguzoh)."

3:50 2nd | Dartmouth 61, Princeton 59
Llewellyn with the spin, and it's now a two-point Dartmouth lead as we head into the final few minutes. Watch here: https://t.co/beSkgVQ710 pic.twitter.com/FeRimXBvDg
— Princeton Basketball (@Princeton_Hoops) February 17, 2019

Though Princeton never trailed in the last three minutes and led by four after an Aririguzoh bucket with 68 seconds left, it wasn't until the final possession that Princeton sealed up the win. A missed 3-point try on Dartmouth's last possession by Brendan Barry, who came into the weekend as the nation's best 3-point shooter by percentage (.493), wound up in the hands of the Big Green's Chris Knight, who put it back under the basket to cut the Tiger lead to one at 69-68.

FINAL | Princeton 69, Dartmouth 68
The Tigers WIN! Richmond Aririguzoh had a team-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting with seven boards and three blocks. pic.twitter.com/DMATgaIF4D
— Princeton Basketball (@Princeton_Hoops) February 17, 2019

Princeton then inbounded the ball to Devin Cannady, who escaped Dartmouth's attempt to foul as the final seconds ran off.

Aririguzoh dropped in a team-high 18 points to lead four Tigers in double figures along with Stephens (17), Jaelin Llewellyn (14) and Cannady (10).

The Tigers will stay at home next weekend to host Cornell Friday and Columbia Saturday as the Ivy race continues.

"Tonight, we got better, and now we have to carry it on," Henderson said. "I think as long as you're playing really well in March, that's the key."

Postgame Notes

• Devin Cannady added 10 points to his career total to stand at 1,515, behind only Kit Mueller '91 (1.546), Douglas Davis '12 (1,550), Ian Hummer '13 (1,625) and Bill Bradley '65 (2,503) on the Princeton list. Cannady remained at 268 career 3-pointers, behind only Davis (276) and Brian Earl '99 (281), who will bring his Cornell team to Jadwin Friday.

• Myles Stephens jumped two spots on the Princeton scoring list, passing Brian Taylor '84 (1,239) and former teammate Spencer Weisz '17 (1,241) to stand 13^th at 1,249. Gabe Lewullis is 12^th at 1,277.

• Richmond Aririguzoh has led or co-led Princeton in scoring now five times this season, all since the Ivy League schedule began on Jan. 5 against Penn, including in both games this weekend and four of the last five.

More to come