Piercing Play

When TigerBlog saw the box score from Princeton's 93-90 overtime win over Dartmouth Saturday at Jadwin Gym and saw that Caden Pierce had 17 points and 13 rebounds, he had two immediate thoughts:

1) Who was the last Princeton freshman to have a game like that, and 2) those two numbers didn't take into account his biggest contribution of the day.

The play to which TB refers in No. 2 is the kind of play that can win you championships.

The answer to No. 1 is ... TB doesn't know. He did some really basic research and learned that it wasn't Chris Young (who would have been his first guess) or Ian Hummer (who would have been his second). He'll have to do a bit more digging.

In the meantime, there was the game Saturday afternoon at Jadwin.

Dartmouth came into the game looking to do something it hadn't done since 1940 - beat Princeton, Yale and Harvard on the road in the same season. The Big Green had already taken down the other two, and it looked very much like they would reach the triple for the first time in 83 years.

It was a back-and-forth game, one that featured great performances by players on both teams. While he's doing his research, perhaps TB can also find out if a visiting team ever had two players with at least 24 points, as Dartmouth did with Ryan Cornish (31) and Dusan Neskovic (24). 

The Tigers were equally as clutch, with five in double figures. Tosan Evbuomwan had a team-best 20 points, along with a team-best five assists. His two best finishes came with 3:45 to go in the second half to tie it at 70-70 and then with 3:23 left in overtime to put Princeton up 80-78.

In between, Dartmouth snapped the 70-70 tie by scoring six of the next seven, and suddenly it wasn't looking good for Princeton, now down 76-71 after a Brandon Mitchell-Day three-pointer with two minutes to go.

It still didn't look good 50 seconds later, when Keyshawn Kellman missed the first of his two fouls hots. When he made the second, it was 76-72, Dartmouth ball, in the double bonus. Get the ball in. Shoot foul shots. Close out the win.

Ah, but the first part proved to be tougher than usual.

Pierce, lined up over the indounder, got a hand on the ball and then possessed it and flipped it to Evbuomwan, who then did what he does as well as anyone Princeton has had play for it in a long, long time — found the open shooter on the perimeter and got him the ball without committing a charge. 

In this case, the open man was Matt Allocco, who did what he does, which is to say he canned the three, making it 76-75 and bringing the Jadwin crowd very much back into it. 

Clutch Moments!#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/hei6AHLKWb

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) January 21, 2023

Without Pierce's play, it's very likely that Dartmouth finds itself on the foul line for two up five points. Instead, Princeton had all the momentum.

In fact, the steal changed everything. Despite having a five-point lead in the final two minutes, Dartmouth never went to the foul line. Not once. There would be two more Big Green turnovers in the final minute, as Princeton's defense fed off of what Pierce had done.

Dartmouth had its last lead at 82-81 with 2:25 left in the OT, and it was tied for the final time at 85-85 with 1:13 to go before Kellman (six of his 18 for the game and six of Princeton's 17 in the overtime) put the Tigers on top for good.

The very hard-earned win over Dartmouth, coupled with Harvard's win over Cornell, left the Tigers alone in first at 5-1, ahead of the 4-2 Big Red.

The Big Green is now one of four 3-3 teams, along with Harvard, Yale and Brown. The league race continues to change week-to-week, all heading to the Ivy League tournament at Jadwin the second weekend of March. 

Of course, had Dartmouth won Saturday, there would have been a three-way tie at 4-2.

Like TB said, little plays can become very, very big.