HE’S ALL WRIGHT
Princeton’s Ethan Wright (14) is averaging 9.7 points per game since entering the starting lineup on Dec. 19.
native is averaging 9.7 points per game on 49.3% shooting (44% from 3) since moving into the starting lineup on Dec. 19.
“Choir boy looks,” coach Mitch Henderson quipped, “but he’s got a little sass in him.”
That characterization, while certainly drawing a laugh, has some truth to it.
“I don’t always look the part,” Wright said. “I’m a little smaller, don’t have the biggest muscles, but that’s not always important. A lot of it is toughness, competitiveness and skills that you can’t always see right away. I take that very seriously and have a lot of pride in how hard I work and how competitive I am. That’s not something
Princeton’s Ethan Wright (14) passes the ball to a teammate during an Ivy League game against Brown. Wright scored a career-best 21 points in the game.
you always see at the surface.”
Those traits were passed down from his parents. His father, Don, grew up in Princeton and rowed crew at Yale, but the basketball instinct — and jump shot — is from his mother.
Ellen DeVoe was a fouryear letterwinner on Princeton’s women’s basketball team in the mid-80s. She was three times voted an All-Ivy selection (first team in 1985) and scored 1,290 career points, including a single-game record of 38 that stood until Bella Alarie broke it last season. DeVoe will be honored as an Ivy League legend at the conference tournament in March.
“Everything in life, in basketball, she’s always been my motivator,” Wright said. “She never pushes me or is making me do anything, and that’s given me a really good lesson that I have to do it myself. That’s something that Mitch has said a lot, too. You guys got to do it yourself. I can help you, but it’s up to you.”
Wright showed off his best stuff in Princeton’s 73-54 victory over Brown. He scored a career-best 21
points on 9-for-10 shooting. He was working on a perfect night, having hit on his first eight shots, before misfiring on a late shot clock 3-pointer in the second half.
“I was just moving well on offense,” Wright said. “Our offense was kind of working off our defense. We were very confident. I was feeling good, getting to my spots. I was cutting and coming off screens and just feeling comfortable.”
Added Henderson: “He’s putting us on his back. I thought he was terrific.”
The Tigers are 8-3 since Wright was inserted into the starting lineup. His season began trying to provide a spark in sporadic bench minutes, but a willingness to commit to defense, Wright said, helped him earn the promotion to the starting unit.
“I realized early on that if you want to play, you got to play defense,” he said. “It’s usually my main focus and a lot of times I have help with Jaelin (Llewellyn) and Richmond (Aririguzoh) guarding some of the really good guys. Offense doesn’t matter until you’re getting stops, especially with us, because our
defense (impacts) our offense so much. It’s so important for us to be strong on defense.”
Now it’s all to play for. Princeton shook off a blowout loss against Yale to beat Brown and pull even with the Bulldogs in the standings.
“We took a little look in the mirror and we’re like this is going to be a defining moment for us,” Wright said. “We’re either going to collapse or we’re going to respond. It was a must-win for us. We were really motivated and we prepared well. We have to keep working on preparation not only on game days, but during the week.”
The next four are all on the road, but given that the season started with a 1-7 stretch, Wright and the Tigers are were they need to be.
“We had a tough stretch to start the season, but we responded really well,” Wright said. “We were never negative and that’s kind of showed the past couple weekends with our responses (to a loss). We’re confident. No matter how games go, we play how we want to play and do what we want to do.”