ALL IN: Princeton University men’s basketball player Matt Allocco looks to pass the ball last Friday night against Columbia. Bouncing back from a knock that sidelined him in the second half of Princeton’s 84-70 win over the Lions, Allocco scored 19 points as the Tigers edged Cornell 79-77 a night later in Ivy League first-place showdown. Princeton, now 23-3 overall and 11-2 Ivy, plays at Penn on March 9 in its regular season finale. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

As the Princeton University men’s basketball team hosted Columbia last Friday night, Matt Allocco got knocked out of the game late in the first half.

Princeton senior guard and co-captain Allocco crashed to the floor when taking a charge and didn’t return for the second half as he was treated by the program’s medical staff while the Tigers pulled away to an 84-70 win.

While Allocco’s status for Saturday’s regular season home finale and Ivy League first-place showdown against Cornell was unclear, he had no doubt that he would take the court for his Senior Night.

“It is my last game here, nothing is going to keep me out or anybody out of a game like that,” said Allocco.

While Allocco and the squad’s other senior, Zach Martini, were honored in an emotional pregame ceremony that drew the cheers of the sellout crowd of 5,409 packing Jadwin Gym, the pair kept their focus on dealing with the Big Red.

“It was like stay locked in, win the game because we can enjoy all of that stuff when we are done here and get to look back,” said Allocco.

“We still have a job to do. This whole experience of playing here has been the greatest joy of my life, but we had a job to do. It was always just to stay on task.”

Martini took the same approach. “I think the implication and the stakes of the game helped us stay focused,” said Martini. “It was a great ceremony. It was awesome to be honored with coach and Mush (Allocco), but we knew what was at hand today.”

In the early going, however, things weren’t going great as the Tigers fell behind Cornell 17-7 and drew the ire of Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson.

“I was getting into the guys. I told the guys beforehand, ‘I am going to be really calm tonight and you guys have to play hard and then I totally lost it,’” said Henderson, who called two timeouts in a span of 1:15 midway through the first half. “They were looking at me like I was funny and I was looking at them like they were funny and it was, ‘Let’s go.’ I thought we weren’t focused and playing hard enough to play championship level basketball, and then we did.”

Responding to Henderson’s fiery message, Princeton closed the half on a 26-18 run to draw within 35-33. The Tigers kept playing at a high level, pulling out a 79-77 win, improving to 23-3 overall and 11-2 Ivy. They are now tied atop the Ivy standings with Yale (20-8 overall, 11-2 Ivy) as Cornell (21-6 overall, 10-3 Ivy) slipped to third.

“I thought we absorbed about 50 haymakers on the night, we kept fighting back and pushing back,” said Henderson.

“I can’t even look at the other sideline. Brian
(Cornell head coach and former Princeton assistant coach Brian Earl) is a great friend, a best friend. It is very difficult to look down there because they are so good. It is really not a fun game to coach in.”

Allocco was proud of how the Tigers battled in the tense contest that saw the Tigers trailing 69-64 with 4:21 left in regulation.

“You can look down the line and everybody stepped up and made a big play at some point,” said Allocco. “Zach hit a huge three in the corner that gave us a lead when things looked like they were starting to swing their way. I could go down the line — I highlight him because he is right here. A lot of us have been in big moments all year long. I think it really helped us tonight.”

Henderson credited his two senior stalwarts, Allocco and Martini, with helping the Tigers excel on a daily basis.

“We are the beneficiary of these two guys,” said Henderson. “In this league, it is seniors. You don’t see that often in college basketball any more. With a player like Caitlin Clark (of Iowa), women’s college basketball is exploding and is popular because everyone knows the players. People know these guys. We are such beneficiaries as a staff, as a program, as a team, the managers with the quality of human beings that Zach and Matt are.”

In the win over Cornell, Princeton benefited from quality minutes off the bench from sophomore guard and former Hun School standout Jack Scott.

“He is the first to practice. He is always putting in extra work and has earned everything we have given him,” said Henderson of Scott, who scored four points with three rebounds, hitting a key three-pointer down the stretch and then draining a free throw with 14 seconds left that put the Tigers up 78-74.

“He played fearless tonight, he had a smile on his face in a really big moment. That three he made was one play but he also had three really important rebounds. I just felt good about him in there.”

A dunk by sophomore star Caden Pierce on a feed from Allocco with 1:15 left that put Princeton ahead for good proved to be a really important moment for the Tigers.

“It was an unbelievable play, I think one of the better executed plays I have ever seen,” said Henderson, referring to the heroics of Pierce who ended up with 23 points and eight rebounds and was later named the Ivy Player of the Week. “It was really important, I thought that swung it. Mush dumping it off to Caden for an and-one and then making the free throw. It was a huge play.”

Allocco liked the way the Tigers executed down the stretch as they held off the Big Red.

“We just had to weather the storm, we took a few big hits early for sure,” said Allocco, who tallied 19 points with four rebounds and two assists in the win. “I thought we did a great job of just staying in the moment. Our whole thing going was just being fearless, letting it rip, cutting it loose.”

With Princeton playing at Penn on March 9 in its regular season finale before starting play in the Ivy Madness postseason tournament from March 16-17 at Columbia, Henderson is confident his players will stay on task.

“The beauty of these two, I asked them in the locker room if they wanted to say anything and Zach goes, ‘We have one more,’” said Henderson, who also got 19 points along with 10 rebounds from sophomore star Xaivian Lee against Cornell. “We will be ready.”

Allocco, for his part, concurred when asked about the clash with the archival Quakers at the Palestra.

“It is exciting, it will be a great challenge,” said Allocco. “We will be ready.”