Men's Basketball: Doug Davis' top 5 games

After sitting down with senior guard Doug Davis to reflect on his Princeton career, we count down his top five games with the Tigers:

5. The Defense: At an undersized 5 feet 11 inches, Davis has never been known as a prototypical shutdown defender. But against Dartmouth his junior year, the guard used his agility to his advantage, notching a career-high six steals to fend off a spunky Big Green squad. Davis’ offense did the rest of the talking as he dropped 16 points in a runaway 68-53 win.

4. The Opener: The sharp-shooting Davis needed little time getting acquainted with college basketball. In his first career game, Davis played the full 40 minutes, exploding for 25 points and announcing himself to the Orange and Black for the next four years. Even as a rookie, Davis flashed his crunch time potential, hitting three shots in the final 49 seconds to cut into a five-point deficit. Though the Tigers lost 55-53 in the end, Davis’ 25 points stand as the highest opening game of any Princeton player since the first game of the legendary Bill Bradley ’65.

3. NCAA Tourney: In Davis’ lone NCAA Tournament game of his career, the Tigers faced talent-loaded Kentucky, who controlled the early game and looked poised for a swift victory. Down 19-13, Davis went on a torrid run, scoring 11 straight points: two jumpers, a three-pointer, two free throws and a final jumper, giving Princeton its first lead of the game at 24-22. Though he was silent most of the rest of the way in the 59-57 loss, Davis’ first half run allowed the Tigers to fight until the end against the eventual Final Four Wildcats.

2. Ending on a High Note: Rarely does offensive efficiency and quantity come together quite like it did in the 95-86 win over Evansville in the first round of the postseason College Basketball Invitational. Davis was on fire from everywhere on the court, hitting nine of 11 shots in all, including five of six three-pointers to go along with a perfect eight free throws. He drove past defenders and shot over them, filling up the stat sheet with a career-high 31 points and refusing to fade as his final season closed.

1. The Jumper: Nothing encapsulates Davis’ career quite like the game-winning shot over Harvard in the one-game Ivy League playoff his junior year: his propensity for jump shots, his smooth shooting stroke and, most importantly, his crunch time skills. Down one with 2.8 seconds left and a spot in the NCAA Tournament on the line, Davis took an inbounds pass from the left side of the basket and made his move. After two dribbles, a vicious pump fake gave him an open look. Davis rose up and drilled the jumper, sending the Tigers into the postseason in his self-described “favorite moment” of his career.