Monday, December 23, 2024

A Princeton Christmas

TigerBlog will start out by saying this: The Princeton-Rutgers men's basketball game Saturday afternoon was one of the best he's ever seen.

There wasn't much missing, other than perhaps the words "NCAA" and "tournament." Other than that? This was an epic. 

The final score at the Prudential Center in Newark was Princeton 83, Rutgers 82, the game-winner from Caden Pierce with four seconds to go — after Rutgers' Ace Bailey put the Scarlet Knights up 82-81 with a three-pointer eight seconds earlier. 

That was John Fanta on the call. "A Princeton Christmas." Well done.  

What made this such a great game? It just had that special feeling from start to finish. The intensity was obvious. The crowd was into it. There were huge shots on both sides.

There was just a spark to this one, and the way it played out only upped the ante.  

This was the first Princeton-Rutgers game ever where both teams reached at least 80 points. That's a total of 122 games, by the way. 

It was also the first time Princeton and Rutgers played a one-point game since the infamous 54-53 Scarlet Knights win in the first round of the 1976 NCAA tournament.

Neither team ever led by more than six. There were 13 ties and 17 lead changes. Each time one team looked like it was in control, the other team stormed right back. Momentum came and momentum went. 

There was the subplot of Zach Martini, the Princeton alum who is playing at Rutgers as a grad transfer. Martini had a seven-point day against his alma mater, including a three-pointer with eight minutes to play to account for one of the lead changes. 

And the stars? They played like stars. 

Rutgers guard Dylan Harper is third in Division I in scoring, first among freshmen. He's also a sure-fire lottery pick in the next NBA Drafter. Harper certainly looked the part Saturday, with a game-high 22 points and a season's worth of individual highlights. 

Bailey, another freshman and another lottery pick, finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, including what otherwise might have been the clutch winner were it not for Pierce.

Then there were Princeton's two first-team All-Ivy League selections from a year ago, Pierce and Xavian Lee. 

Harper and Bailey combined for 37 points, 17 rebounds and four assists. Pierce and Lee? They had 42 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists. 

At times it looked like Harper and Lee were playing some sort of game of "HORSE" in the middle of the actual game. It was certainly a showcase of how to create your own shot, and it was definitely impressive.

Lee finished with a career-high 11 assists and six rebounds, leaving him only four boards away from another triple-double. He didn't score in the first 14 minutes, missing his first four shots, and then scored 21 in the final 26 minutes. 

Pierce led a rebounding effort that was extraordinary, as the Tigers had an edge of 43-36 on the glass, with 19 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points. Pierce had 14 rebounds, a season high, and there was no doubt that he was going to be the one to take the last shot. 

This was a "get out of the way" moment, and Pierce made it happen by himself. In fact, he was the only one who touched the ball after Blake Peters inbounded it after the Baily three-pointer. 

Peters had three three-pointers of his own and was one of five other Tigers who had at least seven in the game. It was a big shot here by Philip Byriel (he had eight points and five rebounds), and another one from Jackson Hicke (eight points, three for three shooting). Dalen Davis had seven, and Malik Abdullahi had eight points and four rebounds while providing a huge inside presence against the Rutgers inside players. 

In the end, it was a wildly entertaining game, one that ultimately will lack the historical significance of a game in March. That hardly matters to anyone who watched, either in the building or on TV. 

This was a classic, start to finish. And a great win for the Tigers.

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