Penn hands Princeton 2nd straight Ivy home loss
PRINCETON » Mitch Henderson began his postgame press conference by acknowledging the Super Bowl champion Eagles and the magic in Philadelphia right now.
Perhaps some of it is rubbing off on Penn.
Especially after the Quakers pasted Princeton, 82-65, on Tuesday night for their first win at Jadwin Gym in nine years.
“They had an answer for everything we tried defensively,” Henderson said. “I still think we can be good. I love where we can be. We’re a work in progress, and I wish we were in a different place than where we are in the standings, but I think you are exactly what your record says you are.”
The Tigers (11-10, 3-3) are now a team with its back against the wall and four straight road games on the schedule. They lost consecutive Ivy League home games in the same season for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign, one in which they went 6-23 and 3-11 in the league.
“Going on the road can bring the guys together,” forward Myles Stephens said. “We’re in the same hotel, we’re all watching film together, we’re eating together. I think we all know this is an important trip for us on the road, these next four games coming up. We’re going to try and focus in on offense and defense and do what we can to win.”
Penn (16-6, 6-0), meanwhile, has sole possession of first place just one season after it began 0-6 in the league and had to scramble just to make the top four. It swept the season series against its arch rival for the first time since that 07-08 season.
This Quakers squad, armed with mostly the same players who took the Tigers to overtime in the Ivy semifinal, is a year improved and that was evidenced in the way they scored the game’s first 11 points, and despite briefly giving up the lead late in the first half, controlled the entire 40 minutes.
In the last three meetings, Princeton has led for just 6:25 out of a possible 125 minutes.
AJ Brodeur scored all 17 of his points in the second half as Penn pounded the ball inside and ended up with 30 of its 42 points in the paint in the final 20 minutes.
Brodeur’s three-point play with 14:19 remaining capped a 9-0 run the build the Quakers’ advantage back to nine, and Princeton never seriously threatened again.
“The basket is inside,” Henderson said. “It has a tendency to deflate your moral courage to say you can do anything when they are scoring so easily around the basket.”
Darnell Foreman finished with a game-high 21 points on 7-for-8 from the field and Ryan Betley added 14 for Penn.
Stephens scored 20 and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Tigers. Amir Bell finished with 15, but the Quakers did a good job against Devin Cannady, limiting Princeton’s top scorer to eight points on 2-for-8 shooting.
“We’ve been in this situation before and came back to win these games, but today we just didn’t have it,” Stephens said. “The 5050 balls, offensive rebounds, the little things … we just couldn’t get to those. Defensively, we were just off and eventually they built their lead.”
The Tigers slipped in to a threeway tie for third with Brown, which won for just the third time ever at Jadwin on Saturday night, Columbia. Princeton travels to second-place Harvard on Friday.
“It’s a tough stretch, but we have Myles, Amir and Devin, who have won really big games on the road,” Henderson said. “Sometimes when you go on the road, things come together and your focus tends to get a little more laser like.”