Men's Basketball: Princeton leads entire game for Henderson’s first victory

The men’s basketball team secured a 61-53 win over visiting Buffalo courtesy of a fabulous first-half performance. Princeton won for the first time this season, also marking the first victory for head coach Mitch Henderson ’98. The win suggests that last season’s success may not be as far-fetched a standard to emulate as the opening losses had indicated.

The Tigers (1-2) stormed to a 37-16 lead at the end of the first half with both tenacious defending and judicious ball-handling on the offensive end. The guards had active hands and hounded their counterparts around screens, while the frontcourt contested passes inside and pressured each shot. In addition, the Tigers committed only six turnovers in the period while forcing 12.

“We feel very confident that this could be a good team,” Henderson said. “What we wanted to do right away was go right at them, and I think we did that nicely.”

Junior forward Ian Hummer led Princeton with his all-around play, registering 18 points, 12 rebounds and two each of assists, steals and blocks. He set the tone defensively, demonstrating great intensity with each board and altered shot. About a minute after Buffalo’s star forward Javon McCrea scored his third consecutive bucket in a 46-second spell midway through the first half, Hummer took the charge to force an offensive foul on McCrea.

“Two losses in a row, and one at home that broke a pretty long home win streak; we wanted to prove that we weren’t just a one-season team,” Hummer said. “We came out, we rebounded — a thing we haven’t really done in the last two games — and we protected offensive boards from the other team.”

However, the second half showcased a reversal of roles for the teams. Buffalo took the floor with renewed commitment and immense energy. The Bulls induced six turnovers by the Tigers in the first six minutes as they outscored their opponents 10 to four in that stretch. Forward Mitchell Watt combined with McCrea to score all 10 points in that run to expose the defensive frailties of the Tigers’ big men.

Although the Tigers worked to prevent Buffalo from eating too large a portion of the lead, the Bulls ultimately pulled to within eight points by the end of the game. The Tigers could only somewhat stem the dramatically changed flow of the game and were relieved at the sound of the buzzer that dashed fears of a Buffalo comeback.

“We obviously saw some things in ourselves in the second half that need to be corrected,” Henderson said. “When a team’s playing down and is aggressive, you must take care of the ball, and that’s what’s expected of T.J. and Doug,” he added, referring to his starting backcourt of sophomore T.J. Bray and senior Doug Davis.

McCrea upped his performance significantly in the second period, making five of seven field goal attempts and draining both his free throws. The Bulls scored 22 points in the paint in the second half while the Tigers managed an abysmal four, underscoring the major issue of finding the right lineup, particularly in the forward and center positions.

Although junior forward Will Barrett and junior center Brendan Connolly started the game, neither hit the 20-minute mark in playing time. Henderson, partly prompted by Connolly’s foul trouble, opted for junior forward Mack Darrow and senior forward Patrick Saunders as the players to complement Hummer for the majority of the game. Both responded to the coach’s call with solid performances to stake a claim for a regular spot in the starting five this year.

The Tigers have gone through poor scoring spells in each of their three games and must find a third consistent scorer to make up for the loss of last year’s top scorer Kareem Maddox ’11 and starting guard Dan Mavraides ’11. Darrow scored 11 points off the bench and Bray added seven points and four assists, but as of now, the team looks dependent on Hummer and Davis for their offense.

“I feel like the balance is going to come,” Henderson said. “We can’t do this all year, so it will have to come at some point.”

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The Tigers play at home on Tuesday against Elon before travelling to Lewisburg, Pa., to spend Thanksgiving weekend duelling against teams in the TicketCity Legends Classic.