On Friday, men’s basketball (16–6 overall, 5–2 Ivy League) traveled to Philadelphia to take on the Penn Quakers (6–14, 2–5) at the iconic Palestra in the 251st edition of the storied Princeton-Penn rivalry. The rivalry is said to be the third-oldest consecutively played rivalry in NCAA Division I basketball. After a back-and-forth game, the Tigers beat the Quakers for the 12th consecutive time, 61–59.
“We were really fortunate to get that one,” Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 told The Daily Princetonian. “We couldn’t pull away at all. We were sloppy.”
The win also came with a milestone for junior standout guard Xaivian Lee, who scored his 1000th career point for Princeton and became the 38th Tiger to reach quadruple digits. Junior forward Caden Pierce is at 998 career points following Friday night’s game and will most likely join Lee in the 1000 point club this coming weekend.
For the second straight game, Henderson started first-year forwards CJ Happy and Malik Abdullahi. Prior to the Brown game, sophomore guard Dalen Davis had started the first 20 games of the season.
For Penn, guard Ethan Roberts was ruled out for the contest. Roberts is the leading scorer on the Quakers roster, averaging 17.8 points per game.
The Tigers got off to a fast start in Philly, scoring three unanswered triples and a transition basket to take an 11–0 lead early. Two of the three triples came from Happy, who scored a game-high 13 points.
“I’m just looking to learn as much as I can, as fast as possible, because we’re already in the second half of the league season,” Happy told the ‘Prince.’
Turnovers and missed shots by the Tigers allowed the Quakers to get back into the game. With just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half, the Tigers lead was down to three, 13–10.
The low-scoring first half continued, but a triple from senior guard Blake Peters put the Tigers up 25–19. Heading into the game, Peters had been playing some of the best basketball of his collegiate career, making 18 triples on 54 percent efficiency over his last four games.
At halftime, Princeton led its rivals by seven, 31–24. Happy led the Tigers with 11 points before heading to the bench with two fouls. Despite shooting 30 percent from the field, Penn’s defense helped them to remain in the game.
Coming out of the locker room, a quick 6–2 run put the Tigers up by 11. However, the Quakers quickly responded with eight unanswered points to reduce the deficit to three.
Then, Peters came up big on the defensive end, recording his seventh career block before blowing by his defender for an easy layup. The next offensive possession, he found Davis for a triple in transition to make it 44–37.
The milestone moment for Lee came with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game as a shot from beyond the arc put the Orange and Black up 47–42. The celebrations were short-lived as Penn scored the next five points to tie the game at 47.
As the Palestra erupted, Henderson called a timeout to calm his team down. Off the break, the Tigers went on a 7–1 run to take the lead back.
“I thought tonight, the crowd was great and loud, and it contributed to what I thought was a very good atmosphere,” Henderson said.
However, the next seven minutes of game time saw Princeton score just two points. The Orange and Black were struggling to take care of the ball — Penn scored 18 points off Princeton turnovers during the game. With under a minute left, the Quakers led 58–56.
Down by two, the ball went into the hands of Dalen Davis, who buried a triple to put Princeton up by one. Before the shot, Davis was one-for-five from the field and had played just 15 minutes.
After Penn went one-for-two at the line, Princeton had the ball with the game tied at 59. Lee lost his dribble before finding sophomore guard Jackson Hicke, who was fouled and went to the line with 0.6 seconds remaining. Missed free throws proved costly for Penn as Hicke made both free throws for a 61–59 Tiger win.
“I knew there had to be at least one second on the clock, so I kind of just pump faced and hoped to get a foul, and I did,” Hicke explained. “My teammates were great at just keeping me confident.”
“It’s definitely a testament to our team that we stuck together and pulled it out,” he continued.
With Cornell (13–7, 5–2) losing to Yale (14–6, 7–0) on Saturday afternoon, Princeton is now tied for second place in the Ivy League standings.
If Henderson’s squad wants a chance to win a fourth consecutive regular season championship, they must go 2–0 next weekend. The latter of the two games is against the Bulldogs, who are on an eight-game win streak and have won 12 out of the last 15 against the Tigers.
“If they [the team] keep working, I feel like we can get so much better,” Henderson told the ‘Prince.’ “I really don’t think we’re even close to being what we can be.”
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate News editor, senior Sports writer, and Education Director for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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