 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJSportAction) caption: |
Over the last 20 years or so, the Princeton University men's basketball team has typically scheduled a Division III team to help ease its transition from exam break to the meat of the Ivy League campaign.
This season, however, the Tigers subjected themselves to a stiffer test as they played last Sunday at Davidson, a solid D-I program that annually contends for the Southern Conference crown.
The battle-tested Wildcats entered the evening with a 12-7 record, riding an 18-game winning streak at home.
In the early stages of the game, Princeton appeared up for the challenge as it jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Looking sharp on offense, Princeton shot 57.9 percent from the field in the first half.
Despite that efficiency, Princeton found itself trailing 37-28 at the half. The Tigers narrowed the gap to 39-32 early in the second half but was unable to get any closer as it failed to convert two open three-pointers.
Revving up its offense, Davidson pulled away to a 65-50 victory before a crowd of 3,517 at Belk Arena.
While Princeton head coach Joe Scott would have preferred to come home with a victory, he thought the experience could benefit the Tigers over the long haul.
"I think this is a better way to come back from the break, going on the road and competing against a good team" said Scott, whose club fell to 3-12 with the setback."That's the kind of game we're going to get in the league and it prepares us better."
The Tigers put in a lot of work preparing offensively for Davidson and showed progress in that area of their game.
"Our offense was better the whole game," said Scott, noting that Princeton committed only 11 turnovers on the evening. "The guys were moving better and getting open shots. We've spent a lot of time on offense in practice and we're seeing some results."
Junior center Justin Conway gave the Tigers a spark as he made his first career start. "He deserved to play," said Scott of the 6'4 native of Santa Fe, N.M., who scored seven points and passed for three assists.
"He probably should've played earlier. He's one of the fastest guys on the team and he can get around his guy. He also has a knack for getting the ball to guys for open shots. It was showing in practice, the offense ran better when we put him with the first team."
Senior point guard Scott Greenman and sophomore Kyle Koncz hit some open shots as they scored 11 and 12 points, respectively.
"It was good to see Scotty make some shots," said Scott. "He has struggled; we know he can shoot better than he has been. Maybe this will get him going in the right direction. Kyle has been shooting well. We've stressed to him that although he's shooting around 40 percent on his three-pointers, he needs to be more consistent."
While the Tigers may have looked better on offense, Scott acknowledged that his club's defense faltered.
"We weren't good with our transition defense," said Scott, reflecting on a night in which Davidson hit 61 percent of its shots in the first half and ended up shooting 48.9 percent on the game. "We didn't control the tempo of the game; that has to be a staple for us."
Princeton needs to get the tempo under control as its hosts Yale this Friday and then Brown a night later.
"For the most part, their guys are juniors and seniors," explained Scott, referring to Yale which is 3-1 in Ivy play after beating Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend.
"They had a good weekend at home; they'll be feeling good about themselves. Brown seems to have figured out who they are going with, they're playing better. Both nights are going to be tough."
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