TRUE BLUE: Princeton High boys’ basketball player Zahrion Blue drives around a foe in recent action. Last Friday, senior star Blue poured in 24 points in a losing cause as PHS fell 63-50 at Robbinsville to move to 6-4. The Little Tigers will look to get back on the winning track as they play at Allentown on January 20 before hosting Trenton on January 24. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Playing at West Windsor/Plainsboro-North last week, the Princeton High boys’ basketball team looked like it might get run out of the gym in the early stages of the contest.

The Little Tigers were outscored 7-0 in the first three minutes of the January 10 game and trailed 14-3 in the first quarter.

Despite the early deficit, PHS senior star Zahrion Blue wasn’t fazed.

“We have a lot of energy,” said Blue. “We were down but we kept the energy going, we kept playing hard.”

With Blue scoring six points in the second quarter, the Little Tigers narrowed the gap to 30-23 at halftime, heading into the fourth quarter. PHS was down 48-42 and Blue realized it was time to take control.

“Offensively I was missing a lot of layups at first,” said Blue. “We were down so I had to turn it up.”

Blue turned it on, scoring 15 points in the quarter to help the Little Tigers pull out a 59-57 victory.

“My role is to score, pass, and to rebound,” said Blue, who ended up with a game-high 25 points on the evening.

PHS head coach Pat Noone likes the way Blue is assuming a multi-faceted role for the squad.

“Zahrion is in a groove and the thing with him from watching him enough now, he really looks to
pass,” said Noone.

“Sometimes you see guys like that will just take over. You can tell he doesn’t because the guys keep playing, they know he is going to keep making passes. He’s going to defend, he’s going to get steals. He has been a real pleasure to coach, it has been awesome.”

Noone was proud of the way his team kept playing hard against WW/P-N.

“We didn’t quit, they didn’t get too far ahead of us,” said Noone. “It is just a team that battles and plays for each other; it is unbelievable how much they play for each other.”

The Little Tigers showed their battling spirit as they started the fourth quarter with a 14-2 run to seize momentum.

“We just told them, it is the last quarter,” recalled Noone. “This is what separates good teams. We have a motto to win ugly. We have to just go out there and win ugly and do whatever it takes.”

Senior guard Andrew Goldsmith helped trigger the fourth quarter surge,  spearheading PHS’s defensive pressure as the Little Tigers forced a number of turnovers in thwarting the WW/P-N offense.

“Andrew just does his role,” said Noone. “We did a good job of establishing roles and that is what we have got. It has been pretty cool.”

Noone is looking to establish an attitude of focusing on the present around the program in his first year guiding the Little Tigers.

“What we have told everybody is that no matter what happens, whether it is good or bad, it is over,” said Noone, whose team fell 63-50 at Robbinsville last Friday to move to 6-4 and plays at Allentown on January 20 before hosting Trenton on January 24.

“We have this mentality. I tell them I am a march to March kind of guy. We are just focused on March. We want to battle and we want to get to March. We are taking it one step at a time and one game at a time; that is the way we are.”

Blue, for his part, is buying into that mentality. “We have to keep the same intensity; we can’t keep the mentality that we are 6-3,” said Blue. “We still have to play like we are down.”