By Bill Alden

Even though the Princeton High boys’ basketball team trailed Robbinsville 45-29 heading into the fourth quarter last week, Tommy Doran wasn’t about to give up.

PHS senior guard Doran scored nine points to help spark a late rally that saw the Little Tigers cut the deficit to nine points before they fell 60-47 in the January 9 contest.

“Usually I focus on three-point shooting, that is my specialty,” said Doran. “Tonight that wasn’t going for me so I wanted to be able to bring in other facets of my game. I was trying to get up the floor in transition and finish at the rim, which I felt I did pretty well.”

Doran acknowledged that it took a while for PHS to get going against the Ravens as it trailed 24-14 at the half.

“We struggled to get anything. We scored four points in the first quarter which is obviously not what we are looking for,” said Doran. “We were having trouble getting into our rhythm and flow; we weren’t hitting shots.”

In the second half, the Little Tigers found a rhythm offensively, scoring 33 points over the last 16 minutes of the contest.

“We were causing some turnovers and we were grabbing some rebounds,” said Doran. “We were getting out in transition and we were finishing which is what we really talked about.”

As Doran heads down the homestretch of his PHS career, he is looking to finish on a high note.

“I think it is just having more of an aggressive instinct,” said Doran, who ended up with a team-high 14 points against Robbinsville.

“A lot of guys in the past have closed out on me hard because I am decent three-point shooter. By pump faking and going by them and being more aggressive, I am expanding my repertoire offensively a little bit and playing a bigger role offensively.”

The team’s senior class is looking to instill an aggressive attitude throughout the squad.

“We give everything in every practice and we are trying to get these guys motivated,” said Doran.

“I think we saw some of that tonight in the second half but it needs to be there 100 percent of the time.”

PHS head coach Pat Noone liked the way his players showed some fire in the second half.

“It was just getting into the flow of our offense,” said Noone. “It is one of those things, if you make a couple of shots, you will get going and get energized.”

Noone credited Doran with giving the Little Tigers some energy as they mounted the late rally.

“Tom has got that ability to really hit shots,” said Noone. “When he got to the hole, that opens up the jump shot.”

In addition to Doran, sophomore Amon Jakisa, senior Sam Tarter, and sophomore Jay Jackson hit some shots in the loss to Robbinsville.

“Amon is pretty good, he is coming to us from Germany,” added Noone. “Sam was good. Jay Jackson had a good start early on, the only problem was that he got into foul trouble.”

While PHS has struggled in the early going, Noone sees no problem with his players’ competitive spirit.

“They are not quitting, we are down 22 and cut it to eight, that is not a sign of a one-win team, that is a sign of a .500 team that thinks they can always win,” said Noone, whose squad lost 63-32 to Ewing last Friday to fall to 1-9 and will look to get on the winning track as it plays at Trenton on January 19, at Palmyra on January 20, and at Hightstown on January 23.

 “That was the good thing. We just are not making the plays. We are a team that is pressing right now. We are looking for a shot, we are looking for something.”

Doran, for his part, believes that the Little Tigers have what it takes to do some good things this winter.

“In the first game of the season (a 60-34 win over Lawrence on December 15) we came out full of energy and we haven’t been able to replicate that all season,” said Doran.

“We have been holding teams to the 40s and 50s defensively, that is in range of winning. Now that we know we can put up 47; if we are holding teams to what we do usually then we can start to turn this season around.”