What A Night In Jadwin

This was a win 123 years in the making. 

Or, more accurately, 123 years and 11 minutes. 

Before TigerBlog gets to what happened last night in Jadwin Gym, he first has to give an apology to the women's and men's hockey teams. TB had written and had ready to go for today an entry on the great weekend both teams had. 

After last night's Princeton-Penn men's basketball game, that entry will have to wait until tomorrow. So yes, apologies to the hockey teams — and congrats on both being in first place in the ECAC. 

Okay, back to Jadwin Gym last night. There is so much that can be said about what happened in one extraordinary game. TB will start with the voice he had in his head when he wrote about the game for yesterday.

It was the voice of former Princeton head men's coach Bill Carmody, who was whispering — figuratively — into TB's ear the same thing over and over: "The Whammy. The Whammy. The Whammy."

It was a phrase that Carmody used a lot. It describes a situation that most people would call simply a "jinx," where someone mentions something good that might happen before it has a chance to actually do so. If it doesn't, then it's your fault for mentioning it. 

That's "The Whammy."

And so it was that TB didn't mention the historical significance of this game. 

Penn won the first three games of the series that started in 1903. Princeton tied it at 3-3 by 1905, and then Penn retook the lead. From that point until their second meeting last year, Princeton never tied the series again. 

Ah, but last year's sweep brought the all-time total to Princeton 126 wins, Penn 126 wins. And that meant that a Princeton win would give the Tigers, for the first time ever, the all-time series lead. 

Did you read any of that in TigerBlog yesterday? No, you didn't. That's because of Carmody's voice. 

Had TB written it and Princeton lost, it would have The Whammy personified. 

So what happened? Well, something incredible, for history and for the present. 

Princeton 78, Penn 76. Princeton 127, Penn 126.  

It certainly didn't start out looking like this would be the night for history. Penn led by 14 with just about two minutes to go in the first half at 30-16, but Princeton finished the half on enough of a run to make it 32-24 at the break. 

What happened to start the second half was unfathomable. No, it was more than that. It was perfection. 

To give you a sense of what happened, consider this: Penn started out the half by shooting 6 for 12 from the field, including 2 for 3 from three-point range, and went from up eight to down seven. 

Has that ever happened anywhere before, on any level? A team shoots 50 percent from the field with double figure attempts and adds a pair of three-pointers and is outscored by 15 in that time? 

How?  

Well, quite simply, Princeton couldn't miss. 

TigerBlog was sitting with, among others, men's soccer coach Jim Barlow, his assistant coaches Steve Totten and Sam Maira, his brother Chris (of NFL Films and a Penn alum), former women's track and field coach Peter Farrell and former men's track and field coach Fred Samara. They were watching and talking, the normal sort of stuff. 

Peter was doing what he does, which is telling great stories about his time at Princeton, or his love for his alma mater Notre Dame or his daughter's recent wedding to Princeton women's lacrosse great Olivia Hompe. Very few people can tell stories like Peter. 

As the stories went along, Princeton began its move. First it was tied. Then the Tigers began to pull away. 

At one point, TB checked out the live stats to see what the Princeton shooting percentage for the second half was. Turned out it was 100. As in 100 percent. As in no shots missed. 

When TB pointed this out to the group, they began to count with each continued make. Eventually, that streak went to 16. Sixteen? Sixteen straight makes to start the half? 

Yes. And that included four threes. And this was a Princeton team that started the game 3 for 15. 

TB has never seen anything like it. The 16th make came with nine minutes left and put Princeton up 63-48 (the streak was actually 17 straight made field goals, including the one that Jackson Hicke made to end the first half). 

Princeton scored eight points in the first 11 minutes of the first half. The Tigers scored 39 in the first 11 minutes of the second half.  

How did Princeton manage to do this?  

There were two catalysts. First, Jack Stanton decided to morph into Michael Jordan, scoring 12 of his game-high 23 in that stretch. And then there was Dalen Davis. 

Returning after an injury that cost him most of November and all of December, Davis stepped onto the court five minutes into the first half and then went 1 for 5 with two points before intermission. 

In the second half? He exploded too, scoring 17 more while shooting 7 for 8 from the field. 

It wasn't just the points from Davis. It was the emotional lift he gave his team. You couldn't help but feel it and sense it if you were in the building. 

Penn, though, didn't fold. In fact, the game ended with a three-point attempt that would have won the game for the Quakers. 

So if you add it up, Princeton outscored Penn 39-16 in those first 11 minutes of the second half but was outscored 60-39 the rest of the night. That was 39 Tiger points in those 11 minutes, and 39 Tiger points in the other 29. 

They were 11 stunning minutes of absolute Princeton perfection. 

They were 123 years in the making.