Princeton upsets No. 17 Arizona St.
Princeton’s senior class had a goal to beat a ranked opponent before it left school. Consider it done.
Richmond Aririguzoh made two clutch free throws with 25 seconds remaining and the Tigers survived a frantic final defensive possession to stun No. 17 Arizona State, 67-66, on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
“We would’ve liked Arizona State to be even higher after the Kansas win, but we came in with that same confidence and we checked that goal off,” said senior Devin Cannady, who finished with a game-high 21 points.
The Sun Devils, who were coming off that victory over then-No. 1 Kansas, had three shots on their final possession before the final buzzer sounded.
“I really feel like we had a plan and we stuck to the plan,” coach Mitch Henderson said. “Throughout the game the guys believed in each other and this was a really hard-fought win. They had shots at it to win at the very end, and usually those fall at home and tonight they didn’t.”
Princeton played without senior forward Myles Stephens (sore knee), but got huge contributions from Jerome Desrosiers and Sebastian Much.
Desrosiers scored a career-high 16 points and Much added 13, including a pair of huge 3-pointers and the pass that set up Aririguzoh for the game-winning free throws.
“I told the guys I believe in this group and if they don’t focus on the negative things and let that stuff go and relentlessly support each other, they can do anything,” Henderson said. “It starts with our leadership, they guys up top.”
Aririguzoh scored nine of his 13 points from the free throw line and was 9-for-10 from the line.
“Just envision making the free throws,” Aririguzoh said. “Calmed down and blocked out the noise pretty much and just follow the routine you’ve been doing since you first started playing basketball. The same form and make sure that noise doesn’t get to you. I’m glad those went in.”
Remy Martin had 19 points and Romello White scored 18 for Arizona State (9-3), which was held to 32.3 percent shooting and was just 2-for-15 from beyond the arc.
Princeton (7-5) recorded its first victory over a ranked opponents since Feb. 11, 2012 when it defeated No. 25 Harvard.
The Tigers have won two straight since getting blasted by 51 points at Duke, which wasn’t lost on Cannady.
“We went into the Duke game with the same mentality and we were with them in the first half and they blew it open in the second half,” he said. “We went back, watched the film and came together. We had a nice win at Lafayette before the break and then we spent three days together out here and I think that brought us even closer. We believed that we could come into this game and win and we came away with that win.”