Senior Day was littered with success for the Tigers as several Princeton players and Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 broke records, both personal and Princeton.
The Tigers honored their three seniors: guard Blake Peters, forward Philip Byriel, and guard Darius Gakwasi. After four years at Princeton, which included the Tigers’ Sweet Sixteen run in 2023, the trio played their final game at Jadwin.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, Princeton (19–10 overall, 8–6 Ivy League) needed a win to clinch an Ivy Madness bid as the No. 4 seed in the tournament. With preseason polls picking them as favorites to win the League, needing a win in their final regular season game against Penn (8–19, 4–10) certainly wasn’t where the Tigers expected to be.
Nevertheless, the game proved to be a very comfortable 95–71 win for the Tigers as they held the lead for 97 percent of the game. A combination of strong defense and incredible shooting gave the Tigers not only the easy victory but also momentum going into the tournament next Saturday.
“We’re really happy to be in the Ivy League tournament,” coach Henderson told The Daily Princetonian. “The last time we were here, it wasn’t great. It’s not the path that we thought we would take this season, but we’re 19–10. We’re in the Ivy League tournament. We know very well what it’s like to be the one seed in this tournament.”
The Tigers started off quickly with successful man-to-man defense as they went into the first timeout up 13–6. More drives into the paint off Penn turnovers helped Princeton build up a 20–15 lead midway through the half.
On the night, the team had 17 points off turnovers, with eight of these coming from the first 10 minutes as Princeton pressed their advantage, capitalizing on sloppy mistakes from the Quakers.
Back-to-back threes by sophomore guard Dalen Davis and Lee kept Princeton’s lead alive, 26–20. With 6:05 to go in the first half, both teams were shooting better on threes than field goals generally — the Tigers were up to 53.8 percent for triples against 50 percent for field goals — a sharp turnaround from the Cornell game which saw them shooting an abysmal 26.3 percent from the perimeter.
The Tigers ended the half in dominant fashion, with five minutes left they were up 36–29 and already had three players in the double digits for points.
A rampant 11–3 run after a media timeout saw them extend their lead, hovering around six for most of the first half, to 13. A triple, steal, and block by junior forward Caden Pierce helped push this run with the team surging offensively and applying constant pressure at the perimeter.
At the break the Tigers were up 47–34 and were 10–18 from three on the night — an impressive 55.6 percent.
The Tigers were notably more vocal in training the week prior to the game.
“I thought we had a really good couple days of practice — we’re a quiet group, and there were guys who were talking who haven’t talked in maybe a couple months,” coach Henderson told the ‘Prince’ about the team’s mentality going into the game. “We heard their voices and thought ‘Wow this is great!’ We need that.”
As the second half started, the Tigers did not let up as the Quakers looked deflated. Before long, Peters had hit his third triple of the night, in a shot reminiscent of Steph Curry, as the ball floated over two Penn players and into the net.
On Senior Day, Peters was putting on a fitting tribute to his time at Princeton with his perimeter play unguardable for Penn. By the end of the game, he secured a game-high 25 points and seven threes off 12 attempts.
With these seven three-pointers, Peters became only the seventh player in program history to make 200 career three-pointers and tied for third all-time on three-point field goals made in a single game.
“I told him he was going to go for his career-high before the game,” Lee told the ‘Prince’ about Peters. “Blake is so consistent every single day, not just his shooting, but everything else too. It’s really easy to win when he’s playing like that, honestly, and makes my job so much easier.”
“It’s a gift to coach people like Blake [Peters],” coach Henderson said. “I’m so humbled and honored to be his coach.”
Threes continued to fall for the Tigers as first-year forward CJ Happy hit a wide open triple to take Princeton’s lead up to its largest of the game, 58–40. Any attempt by the Quakers to claw back a lead was beaten away by Peters who proceeded to hit three straight triples, taking himself up to 22 points.
Peters’ contribution resonates on the statsheet as well — according to KenPom, Peters ranks 82nd in the nation on effective field goal percentage with a 60.4 percent rate taking into account his penchant for threes.
Putting on yet another offensive show for the Tigers was Lee who, with 5:22 left to play, was just a single rebound away from his — and the program’s — second-ever triple-double.
In just over a minute and half, Lee would secure his 10th rebound — and the triple-double with it — before capitalizing on the possession with a step-back three, taking him up to 23 points on the night.
The Tigers saw out the game very comfortably, taking their largest lead up 94–65 with all of the starters rested ahead of Saturday’s matchup. The game ended 95–71 and provided a much-needed boost to the beleaguered Tigers.
“There’s no love lost between these two programs and certainly not from me,” coach Henderson told the ‘Prince.’ “I think rivalries are really important to acknowledge and talk about, and that’s what it has been like for us.”
95 points was the most they had scored in a conference game all season and the most since their 99–63 win against Nazareth in November. The win also secured coach Henderson’s spot as the second-winningest coach in Princeton men’s basketball history, with his 251 victories behind only the great Pete Carril’s 514.
The game also tied Princeton and Penn’s all-time series at 126–126, for the first time since 1905. The historic rivalry between the teams hasn’t meant much in recent years, however, with the Tigers winning the last 13 matchups and seniors on the team like Peters having never lost to the Quakers.
Princeton’s victory certainly didn’t help Penn Head Coach Steve Donahue, as the team announced he had been fired after nine seasons with the Quakers.
Princeton will now face Yale (20–7, 13–1) in the first semifinal of the Ivy Madness Tournament on Saturday, March 15 at 11 a.m. Yale goes into the match as the heavy favorites and the No. 1 seed, but Princeton will no doubt be looking to cause an upset.
“Penn was Coach [Henderson]’s rival, and Penn is still our rival, but as players, we think Yale’s our rival and that’s always how we approach the game,” Peters told the ‘Prince.’ “This is the best Yale team that we’ve seen, so it’s going to take a pretty big effort from me, Caden [Pierce], Xaivian [Lee] and the rest of the guys.”
“[But] we don’t back down from a challenge despite what some of the scores have been in the last couple weeks; we’re fully locked in.” Peters continued.
With Princeton themselves falling as the No. 1 seed to Brown in last year's Ivy Madness semifinal, there is every chance for the Tigers to do the same to the Bulldogs on Saturday.
Alex Beverton-Smith is a head Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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