Princeton beats Harvard on late free throws
PRINCETON >> Richmond Aririguzoh took a deep breath and cleared his mind before stepping to the free throw line.
Swish and swish. Aririguzoh knocked down a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining and Princeton survived what would have been a meltdown to beat Harvard, 70-69, on Saturday night in an Ivy League game at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Aririguzoh’s winning free throws came after the Tigers had coughed up all of an 11-point lead with 3:35 remaining. On the decisive possession, Aririguzoh was fouled on his third attempt to score inside after the Crimson’s Chris Lewis had done enough to deny the Princeton senior on his first two tries.
“I didn’t know exactly how much time I had, but I knew I had to get a quick shot off,” said Aririguzoh, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. “On the last one, he fouled me. Then it was down to mechanics.”
Aririguzoh actually missed his first three throws in the game.
“I take a deep breath and clear my mind,” Aririguzoh said. “I get everything out of my head.”
Princeton (9-8, 4-0) won its sixth straight game and moved over .500 for the first time this season.
“I’ve been around a lot of really good teams and a lot of good players, but there’s an unselfishness with the group,” coach Mitch Henderson said. “They want to see each other do well. My comment on the bad start is we just didn’t know who we were.”
Ethan Wright led the Tigers with 15 points, while Ryan Schwieger and Jerome Desrosiers had 11 each. Wright made 4-for-5 from beyond the arc to lead an outside shooting effort in which Princeton hit on 56.5% (13-for-23).
Harvard (13-6, 2-2), which played an overtime game on Friday against Penn, went in front on Noah Kirkwood’s free throws with 15.2 seconds left to cap a 13-1 run. The Tigers certainly played their part by missing the front end of two one-and-ones.
After Aririguzoh sank his free throws, Christian Juzang’s 3-pointer to win it clanked off the iron. That brought with it a sigh of relief when you consider Princeton had already lost twice on heartbreaking last-second shots here at Jadwin.
“We lost that exact game here twice in this gym,” Henderson said. “... Great game. It must have been fun to watch.”