Princeton falls to Brown with woeful offensive showing
PRINCETON >> Horrific was the word head coach Mitch Henderson used to describe Princeton’s season-high 25 turnovers Friday evening against Brown.
The short-handed Tigers had one of their worst offensive performances of the year in a 67-63 loss to Brown at Jadwin Gym. Ryan Schwieger missed the game and is day-to-day with a concussion, and Devin Cannady, the team’s leading scorer, will not return this season after taking a voluntary leave of absence from school to deal with a personal issue.
But given the widespread backcourt problems and that key upperclassmen Myles Stephens and Richmond Aririguzoh combined for 12 turnovers, Henderson refused to make excuses.
“That’s toughness, that’s taking care of the ball,” he said. “We’ve got to value the ball a lot more. I mean that’s unbelievable — unbelievable.”
Princeton’s (16-10, 8-5) Ivy League Tournament spot is secure, but the Tigers need to win Saturday against Yale or hope Brown (19-10, 7-6) loses at Penn in order to hold onto the third seed.
In order for the Tigers to be any kind of postseason threat, though, they need to clean up plenty of warts over the next week.
Princeton shot just 8-of-30 from beyond the arc against Brown. The Tigers came into the game leading the league in 3-point field goal percentage (.374), and yet they made just one of their first 10 triples and never held a lead.
“The main thing for us is to just stay confident and know that we can play our game,” freshman guard Jaelin Llewellyn said. “They were throwing hedges and stuff, but we were preparing for that all week. We just weren’t making the aggressive plays that we needed to, that we know we can make.”
Brandon Anderson scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting for Brown while Desmond Cambridge, the former Hun School standout, added nine points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
“It’s the most athletic Brown team (I’ve seen),” Henderson said “They’re fast at each position. I think (Obi) Okolie, to me, he’s just playing like a senior. He’s tough. And Anderson played terrific tonight.”
Brown led by as many 13 points and was largely in control throughout the second half, although Princeton did rally to briefly make it a two-point game when Jose Morales buried a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left.
Breaking down the Tigers’ press defense, Brown scored a layup five seconds later to push the lead back to two possessions. Henderson said he wanted to stay aggressive with the lineup Princeton had in rather than back off into a halfcourt set.
Aririguzoh, a Trenton Catholic Academy product, tallied 20 points and 11 rebounds for the fourth double-double of the center’s junior season.
Princeton did force 18 turnovers on the other side in a solid defensive effort, but as a whole, the Tigers are in dire need of a stronger performance in Saturday’s Senior Day game.
“How can we play the way we played in the last four minutes all the time?” Henderson said. “It’s easy to play like that when you’re down 13. How can we get more aggressive offensively?”