Notebook: Princeton Clinches Ivy League Title as Men's Basketball Falls, 73-69

The Princeton defense forced 18 turnovers, including a key stop on Harvard's last offensive possession that led to Amir Bell's winning basket. By Timothy R. O'Meara

PRINCETON, N.J.—If it wasn’t a rivalry before, it certainly is now.

In a game with no implications for the conference tournament next weekend, but plenty of pride on the line, it came down to a single possession.

With just over five second left on the clock and the score tied at 69, Princeton guard Amir Bell drove left and threw up a layup over freshman forward Chris Lewis. The layup found the back of the net and for the second time this season the Crimson (18-8, 10-3 Ivy League) fell to Tigers (20-6, 13-0) on a last second shot.

“It was a hell of a play, I think it was Bell, who shot a lefty hook over Chris,” freshman guard Justin Bassey said. “Chris played great defense, but I think it was really good offense. We’d like to have it back, and a few plays here and there, but it was a really good play and there’s not much more we could’ve done.”

In a game that saw nine ties, six lead changes, and a margin that never went beyond nine, it was ultimately a late turnover and a missed rebound that gave Princeton possession for it’s last second win, 73-69.

With the score tied following a pair of Harvard free throws and just under a minute left on the clock, freshman guard Bryce Aiken drove inside and committed an offensive foul for what would be the Crimson’s 18th turnover.

Despite an initial miss by the Tigers’ Spencer Weisz from deep on the other end, Princeton came up with an offensive board to set up Bell for what is perhaps only another chapter in a budding Ivy League rivalry.

With the win, Princeton is officially the sole owners of the Ivy League regular season title, its first since 2011 and its first outright title since 2004. For the first time however, that distinction means less, as the Ivy League regular season winner will no longer receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, Princeton will enter next weekend’s inaugural Ivy League tournament as the No.1 seed, needing to win two games to get to March Madness.

Freshman Justin Bassey has consistently been tasked with guarding the opposing team's best player, which against Princeton was Steven Cook. Bassey finished with 13 points on the night. By Timothy R. O'Meara

FROM DEEP EARLY

For a Harvard team that thrives beyond the perimeter, Friday’s matchup took it to a different level. The Crimson’s first 18 points came off threes with Harvard going 7-of-14 from deep in the first period.

In total, 21 of the Crimson’s 32 first half points came from beyond the arc with freshman forward Seth Towns pouring in 14 points and 4 rebounds over the span. He finished the game with a season high 26 points and eight rebounds on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from deep.

“If we get into a rhythm of shooting it and shooting it well then we want to stay with it,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “But certainly we needed to get to the foul line a little bit more and needed to drive it a little bit more, but that’s easier said than done against their length on the perimeter and how sound they are defensively.”

In the second half, Harvard kept the threes coming. The Crimson would cut a nine point first half deficit in the span of a minute and on three shots from beyond the arc. In total the Crimson took 28 three pointers and connected on thirteen of them.

For its part, Princeton kept up with the Harvard on the perimeter early—in the first half the Tigers went 6-of-14 from deep. On the game, however Tigers took 26 shots from deep and connected on only eight.

Freshman guard Bryce Aiken struggled on Friday night, shooting 1-of-10 from the floor. By Timothy R. O'Meara

TOUGH TURNOVERS

Behind the hot shooting the Crimson jumped out to a 6-12 advantage in the first. Despite the early lead for Harvard, however, turnovers gave Princeton easy baskets late in the half. In total the Crimson coughed up the ball 12 times in the first frame for a total of 13 points off turnovers.

For its part, Harvard only scored a single point off three Tigers turnovers in the same span.

“We started on fire a little bit at the beginning, and I think we wanted to play with great pace, but we weren’t under control a few times and sometimes that happens when you’re trying to play a faster pace game,” Amaker said. “But you can’t do that on the road and be out of control and I think we did that a few times and just turned it over and allowed them to get extra possessions and score points off our turnovers.”

Despite outshooting and outrebounding the Tigers through 20 minutes of play, the turnovers proved to be costly as Princeton entered the half up by nine.

The Crimson would overcome the deficit in the second half, but ultimately Bell’s shot would be the only one that mattered as Princeton took a last second from Harvard for the second time this season.

“You can’t say enough about how hard both teams played,” Amaker said. “All the kids were just tremendous on both squads. It was a possession game and it’s been nailbiting and I’m proud of our kids for the effort that we displayed here tonight and obviously Princeton is very good.”