Men's Basketball: No. 19 UCF tops cagers

In the title game of the UCF Holiday Classic on Thursday, the Tigers (10-4) came just shy of winning their first in-season tournament since 2000, dropping a 68-62 decision to the host team at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Fla. The result snapped an eight-game win streak for Princeton, including three games over winter break. A win against UCF (13-0) would have been the first against an AP-ranked team since 1997.

Head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 said he was unsatisfied with the game’s outcome.

“I think that we have a nice team, but we want to be a little bit better than nice. We came up short tonight. There’s no moral victory or anything like that,” Johnson said.

In the first half, Princeton shot 48.3 percent and forced 10 UCF turnovers, leading 37-29 at intermission. Senior guard and tri-captain Dan Mavraides was firing on all cylinders, tallying 18 points in the half. But the second half was a different story, as Mavraides was held to just two points and the Tigers saw their lead slip away.

According to UCF head coach Donnie Jones, a rousing halftime speech gave the Knights the motivation they needed to control the game.

“I got after [the] guys and challenged them at halftime. They have to understand that [when] they are playing a team as good as Princeton, that is an NCAA Tournament-caliber team coming in here. You can’t come in and not play at the level you need to play at from the start,” Jones said.

The tide changed, and UCF started off the second half with an 11-2 run — largely due to Marcus Jordan’s contribution of nine points. Jordan, who is the son of the NBA star and was later named most valuable player of the tournament, gave UCF the first lead of the game with a jumper at the 14 minute, 56 second mark. At 40-39, the Knights had a one-point edge that soon shrank back to a three-point deficit. The Knights only managed to pull away in the last four minutes, when they held the Tigers without a field goal. Until the last two minutes, the UCF advantage was never more than one possession.

Princeton was able to make it to the championship game with a 65-63 win over Northeastern the night before. The game was a dramatic one: After a scrappy first stanza that featured 10 lead changes, the Tigers may have thought they had sealed the deal in the second half, carrying a 16-point lead after a dunk by senior forward and tri-captain Kareem Maddox halfway through the period. In the last 10 minutes, though, the Huskies charged back to make it a four-point game, 63-59, with 57 seconds left.

A Princeton turnover gave Northeastern’s Chaisson Allen a layup with 16 seconds left to bring the Huskies just short at 64-63. Mavraides made one of two free-throw attempts with 13 seconds left, leaving the Huskies with a glimmer of hope, but a last-second layup wasn’t good. A Furman University loss to UCF in the semifinal round of the tournament meant that Princeton would battle UCF for the title.

On Dec. 17, Princeton visited Wagner and handed the Seahawks their second double-digit loss of the season, 69-57. The Tigers were up 12 at the half and scored six straight points after the break to grab the largest lead of the game at 42-24 with 18:21 left to play. Wagner was able to slice the deficit to single digits with 5:56 to go, but Princeton soon responded with a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach for the Seahawks.

Maddox led the Tigers with 23 points, while sophomore center Brendan Connolly posted a career-high 10 points.

Princeton met Towson for the first time on Dec. 22, coming away with a 75-65 win over the team based in Johnson’s hometown. The Ivy League Tigers proved too much for the Colonial Athletic Association Tigers, never letting Towson take the lead. Head coach Pat Kennedy suggested that fatigue probably had something to do with Towson’s loss, as the team had played less than 48 hours ago.

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“Shots were going up and our guys looked like they could hardly move to the ball. They were much fresher than we were,” Kennedy said.

Princeton jumped out to a 9-2 start, thanks largely to junior forward Patrick Saunders, who scored seven of the first nine points and eventually led the Tigers with a season-high 15 points.

Towson closed the gap to three points at the half, at 38-35. However, halfway through the second period, Princeton had the 10-point lead, 56-46, that it would close with. Princeton maintained the double-digit advantage for the majority of the last 10 minutes.

The Tigers will host Marist at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Jadwin Gymnasium in their last game until Jan. 23.