On Saturday, the Tigers (23–3 overall, 11–2 Ivy League) took to the court at Jadwin Gymnasium for the final time this season. In front of a packed crowd, the team clinched a 79–77 win over Cornell (21–6, 10–3) and secured an undefeated record for home games. The win also put the Tigers back at the top of the Ivy League standings, with the postseason impending.
For senior guard Matt Allocco and senior forward Zach Martini, Saturday’s match-up marked the season's final chance to play for Princeton at home.
“We’re such beneficiaries as a staff and as a program by the quality of human beings that Zach and Matt are. I’m just so grateful to them,” head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 told The Daily Princetonian.
The pressure was on at senior night as the families of Allocco and Martini joined them on the court in a pre-game ceremony. The two seniors have been pivotal to the team's success this season and during Princeton's March Madness run last year.
“This whole experience playing here has been the greatest joy in my life, but we had a job to do,” Allocco added postgame. “Just to stay on task.”
The Tigers were slow out of the gate, however. Cornell opened the game with strength, as forward Sean Hansen attacked inside for an easy layup. Allocco put Princeton on the board with a pull-up three, but a quick 7–0 run driven by open transition shots for the Big Red gave them a 9–3 lead into the first media timeout. Transition offense is a big piece of the Cornell offense, which ranks number 25 overall in the college basketball statistics website KenPom’s adjusted tempo rankings.
First-year guard Dalen Davis stopped the bleeding with a mid-range jumper, but two straight threes from forward Guy Ragland Jr. forced Princeton into a timeout down 10.
Cornell forward Guy Ragland Jr has two three’s early on. If he keeps hitting the deep ball, Cornell will be in great shape.
— Daily Princetonian Sports (@PrinceSports) March 3, 2024
15-5 Cornell six minutes on. pic.twitter.com/JKw396nTDz
Henderson took his second timeout in two minutes when a hard uncalled hit on sophomore forward Caden Pierce gave Cornell another transition layup.
“We weren’t focused on playing hard enough to play championship-level basketball,” Henderson added about the rare early second timeout. “And then we did.”
Out of the timeout, Princeton found their footing by forcing three straight turnovers for an 8–0 run, highlighted by a signature Pierce dunk. Princeton controlled the tempo on the run and got into their more comfortable half-court defensive sets. However, the Princeton offense cooled off, and Cornell found their way back to the rim a few times for a 24–17 lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half.
Both defenses closed gaps, as a Davis corner three was the only scoring for the next two-and-a-half minutes. After trading free throws, sophomore guard Xaivian Lee finally found the basket on a beautiful drive and finish. Cornell then converted on two drives of their own to take a 31–26 lead into a timeout, including a backdoor cut from Cornell’s Isaiah Gray.
Princeton came into striking distance with a three from junior guard Blake Peters and another free throw from Lee. After a Cornell bucket, Allocco nailed a contested catch and shoot three to finally tie the game 33–33 with 43 seconds remaining.
Tie game here at Jadwin Gym! The crowd is on its feet.
— Daily Princetonian Sports (@PrinceSports) March 3, 2024
Matt Allocco has eight points in the first half. pic.twitter.com/YXrvERsa6u
“We just had to weather the storm,” Allocco told the ‘Prince.’ “We took a few big hits early for sure. But I thought we did a great job of just staying in the moment playing on.”
The Big Red hit a jump shot to retake the lead, but Princeton headed into the locker room down only 35–33 after a rough start to the game.
The Princeton defense held Cornell to just three of 17 three-pointers in the first half, but struggled on the inside, allowing the Big Red to score 12 of their 14 shots from within the arc. Pierce led the Tigers with 10 first-half points, and Davis gave them seven off of the bench as well. The Tigers’ best shooters also struggled, with Lee, Martini, and Peters only making one of their ten shots from deep.
Despite a quiet first half, Lee started the second half hot, knocking down a contested mid-range shot and a long-range three immediately. Cornell then exploited Princeton’s slow switching to go on an 8–0 run, hitting consecutive wide-open corner threes to take a 43–38 lead.
The Tigers and Big Red began to score at will from inside, trading layups possession after possession, with Cornell leading 49–46 after the first six minutes. Allocco grabbed the lead back for the Tigers at the free throw line and with a signature mid-range step back.
Smooth jumper for Mush. Tigers have the lead… will they keep it now? pic.twitter.com/K1AdMffCX1
— Daily Princetonian Sports (@PrinceSports) March 3, 2024
Pierce and Lee extended the lead with free throws, and just a minute later, Allocco struck again with a pull-up three and free throws to give the Tigers their largest lead so far at 58–51.
Cornell finally found their footing on the glass, extending three consecutive possessions with offensive rebounds. In contrast, the Princeton offense lost their rhythm and started to turn the ball over. As the momentum shifted, Cornell jumped out on a 9–0 run from the sheer volume of shots they were able to take. After this run, both teams started to find and convert open corner threes. Martini hit his first, followed by the Bid Red’s Williams, and finally one from sophomore guard Jack Scott.
“He plays so hard and he’s so, so bought in,” Martini said about Scott after the game. “He’s a very versatile player, can defend any position, and I really thought he did a lot [tonight].”
However, the Tigers still could not find an answer to Cornell’s size, and the Big Red continued to exploit mismatches to go up 69–64 with 4:21 left in the game. Fueled by two Cornell turnovers, Lee illustrated why he is a front-runner for Ivy League Player of the Year, scoring on a contested jumper and a deep three to tie the game at 69. Williams found the rim inside, but Pierce countered with two free throws of his own.
Tied at 71 with one-and-a-half minutes remaining, the sold-out crowd in Jadwin Gymnasium was on its feet. Hot off a defensive stop, a seamless drive and assist from Allocco led to an electric and-one dunk from Pierce to put the Tigers up three.
AND ONE FOR CADEN PIERCE.
— Daily Princetonian Sports (@PrinceSports) March 3, 2024
THE TIGERS LEAD BY 3. pic.twitter.com/LlBI6wEP3X
“Unbelievable, I think one of the better-executed plays I’ve ever seen,” Henderson said regarding the play after the game. “I thought that swung [the momentum], [Allocco] dumping it off to Caden for an and-one and then making a free throw.”
At 74–73, Pierce took things into his own hands and muscled his way to another layup for a three-point lead that would ultimately clinch the game. The Tigers got a huge stop after a missed three from Cornell’s Chris Manon, and the Cornell intentional fouling began. Scott hit a huge free throw to put Princeton up four with 14 seconds to ice it, and Lee added another free throw after a stop. The Big Red hit a three with less than a second left, but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers took the 79–77 win.
Pierce led the Tigers in scoring, dropping 23 points. Punctuating his home game career, Allocco scored 19 points with his family watching from the stands.
The Tigers will look to continue their success next week at Penn on March 9. Considering that Princeton holds a significant edge over Yale in NET Rating, a victory over the Quakers will almost certainly give the Tigers the first seed in the Ivy League tournament — the first step of many on the Tigers’ journey to a second-consecutive March Madness appearance.
“Our NET ranking is terrific. We know that what’s at stake in the next two weeks is that we have to win. And if we want to go to the NCAA tournament, we have to win the league,” Henderson continued. “We also know that if we get that chance again, we’re very dangerous. We’d love that opportunity.”
Tate Hutchins is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Riley Bonner is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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