Men's Basketball: Princeton downs TCNJ, has won 8 of 10

Playing its first game at Jadwin Gymnasium since November, the men’s basketball team rolled to one of its easiest wins of the season against The College of New Jersey. The 79-68 victory followed another comfortable win against Florida A&M last week. Princeton (9-7) has won eight of its last 10 games after a poor start and will try to extend its good run into the Ivy League conference matches.

The Division III Lions (6-8) started the game strongly with active hands and a full-court press to assert themselves against the significantly taller Tigers. They jumped to a 20-16 lead in just over eight minutes of action with guard Kyle Rawson recording three layups and a pair of free throws in that span. He also swatted away the ball for a block as junior forward Ian Hummer rose in the paint to send the Lions on the fast break.

However, the Tigers followed with a 16-4 run, claiming a lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the game. The hosts pulled away to a 42-35 scoreline at the half, but they did not bring the defensive intensity that head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 knows the team requires to succeed in league play.

“We’ve identified and earmarked our defense as being the thing that’s going to make us win games,” Henderson said. “They had 35 points at the half, which I think is way too many. Not that concerned with the offense, although the free throws are a big concern, but defensively we’ve got to be much improved, and thank God we’ve got four days to work on it.”

What may have been a stern halftime talk by Henderson spurred on the players, for the Tigers opened the second half with a 10-0 run. The lead allowed Henderson to rotate his players and give the bench a remarkable amount of playing time.

Junior center Brendan Connolly had a career-best game, albeit against much smaller defenders, as he pounded inside for a highly efficient 16 points on eight shots to complement nine rebounds.

“It’s nice to see the ball go through the basket,” Connolly said. “That’s something that was lacking for the most of the first part of the year, but I would say that the past few days of practice have been more so.”

The Tigers dominated the glass during the game, pulling down 21 rebounds in the first half to the Lions’ measly six. Though the Lions improved to grab 13 rebounds after halftime, including seven on the offensive end, the Tigers still outrebounded their opponents by 12 in the period. Princeton’s starting lineup had an average height of nearly 6 feet 6 inches, while the Lions were only a shade above 6 feet 1 inch.

Henderson took the opportunity to put 15 players into the game, as the starters averaged less than one half of playing time. Junior guard Jimmy Sherburne had a very good game off the bench, passing for a team-high four assists in 10 minutes of play, while freshman forward Denton Koon used his 24 minutes to get seven rebounds and seven points under his belt.

One week earlier, the Tigers cruised to a 76-61 victory over Florida A&M (3-13) in the final game of its seven-game road trip. The game capped a splendid stay in Tallahassee, Fla., which included a thrilling triple-overtime win against Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse Florida State (9-6).

The team won by a large margin courtesy of an exceptional offensive performance, with four Tigers scoring in double digits. The Tigers shot an efficient 52.7 percent from the field and burned their opponents with 11-for-24 shooting on three-point attempts. Senior guard Doug Davis and Hummer paced the team with 18 and 15 points, respectively.

The Tigers raced to a 10-point lead at the end of the first period to take control of the game. They then doubled it with three minutes remaining in the game before their opponents trimmed the deficit in the final seconds.

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Princeton now heads directly into Ivy League play, starting at Cornell on Friday. The game will be the first of yet another long road swing, as the Tigers play away for the next five games. The stretch will be challenging, but if the Tigers can bring the same energy that they played with against Florida State, they can expect a fruitful return.