Schwieger's 20, Desrosiers' Double-Double Help Lift Tigers to Win over Columbia

Saturday, February 23

Princeton, N.J.

8:00 PM

Princeton University

15-8, 7-3Ivy

Columbia

7-17, 2-8Ivy

Columbia

Princeton

Jerome Desrosiers had his second career and second consecutive double-double Saturday night.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Schwieger's 20, Desrosiers' Double-Double Help Lift Tigers to Win over Columbia

February 23, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

A night after putting in a career-high 23 points, sophomore Ryan Schwieger scored 20, and a night after getting his first career double-double, classmate Jerome Desrosiers added another in a 79-61 win over Columbia Saturday night in Jadwin Gym.

The win completed both the weekend sweep and the season sweep of the New York schools and kept Princeton in a second-place tie in the Ivy League with Harvard, both at 7-3 in the Ivy. The Crimson beat Yale (8-2) Saturday night to pull both Harvard and Princeton within a game of first place. Both Princeton and Harvard are up two games on Brown and Cornell, who are both 5-5 in pursuit of the fourth and final spot in the Ivy League Tournament with four games to play.

"I thought Jerome played fantastic, and so did his teammates," Mitch Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton men's basketball, said. "We made our free throws and we made shots. A lot of that has to do with Ryan (Schwieger) and Ethan Wright coming into the game."

Princeton will face the other two teams in the current top three in the Ivy over the next two Saturdays, heading to Harvard next Saturday and hosting Yale a week later. Princeton will resume the Ivy slate at Dartmouth Friday night.

"There's something moving and I think they're focused and they know they want it," Henderson said. "We got swept last year on the road at (Dartmouth and Harvard), so we need to correct that."

Columbia led for much of the first half, but a late Tiger surge gave Princeton the lead for good, as it turned out. Princeton went on a 10-2 run to turn a 27-24 Columbia lead with less than four minutes before the break into a 34-29 halftime lead.

Princeton continued its surge after the break, scoring six straight points after Columbia made the first basket of the second half to go up nine at 40-31 with 17-plus minutes to go. From there, Columbia was never closer than six points, and Princeton gradually grew its lead late until it peaked at 20 at 79-59 in the final seconds.

15:07 2nd | Princeton 42, Columbia 36
The Tiger lead is six. Jaelin Llewellyn had this spin move for two in the last stretch. Watch the game here: https://t.co/XVPwOcwKzy pic.twitter.com/xfJHI6jyPB
— Princeton Basketball (@Princeton_Hoops) February 24, 2019

Princeton shot 51.9 percent from the field in the second half, 10 points better than it did in the first half while the Lions stayed close to even at 46.2 percent before the break at 45.2 percent after. The Tigers were able to translate a 13-8 turnover advantage into a 17-11 edge in points off turnovers and overcame an 11-0 Columbia edge in second-chance points despite the teams ending up even on the glass at 33-33.

Along with Schwieger's 20 points and Desrosiers' 14 to go with his 10 boards for the double-double, Myles Stephens joined them in double figures with 15 points. Gabe Stefanini led three Lions in double figures with 18 points.

"At one point, when we were down four, we had three freshmen and two sophomores on the floor and we got the lead back," Henderson said. "Myles (Stephens) was resting, I think, and that's good, that's a good sign for the future."

FINAL | Princeton 79, Columbia 61
Weekend sweep!
Ryan Schwieger puts up back-to-back 20-point games with 20 tonight, and the Tigers go 2-and-0 on the weekend. pic.twitter.com/N2tT8fclpA
— Princeton Basketball (@Princeton_Hoops) February 24, 2019

Postgame Notes

• Princeton has now won 14 of the 16 meetings with Columbia in Mitch Henderson's tenure leading the Tigers and now leads the all-time series 155-86.

• Myles Stephens' 15 points brought him closer to 12th place on Princeton's all-time scoring list. He remains 13th at 1,268, nine behind Gabe Lewullis '99 (1,277) for 12th and 24 back of Bud Haabestad '55 (1,292) for 11th.

• Rookie Ethan Wright scored nine points, all on 3-pointers, to tie a career high set in the season opener against DeSales in November. Five of his seven 3-pointers on the season came in this weekend's games.

"I thought Ethan played terrific this weekend," Henderson said of Wright. "I thought his shotmaking was a big part of us being 2-0 on the weekend."

• Princeton has shot 43 percent or better from the field in each of the last four games.