Princeton misses upset at Butler
INDIANAPOLIS » Princeton wasn’t going down with out a fight.
Ultimately, a scrappy road effort wasn’t enough to land the Tigers an upset win inside historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Kelan Martin had a double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds and Butler held off feisty Princeton, 85-75, on Sunday in the Tigers’ season opener.
Kamar Baldwin’s jumper with 16:01 left to play gave the Bulldogs a 50-38 lead, but Princeton methodically began chipping away and drew to 68-64 10 minutes later. After Mike LeBlanc’s jumper with 3:39 left, Butler used an 8-2 run to create a safe cushion and held on for the win.
Henry Baddley made a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer sandwiched between layups by Nate Fowler and Martin — and back-toback layups by Sean McDermott — and Butler led 33-23 with 5:35 left before halftime. Butler (2-0) was up 41-31 at halftime.
Aaron Thompson scored 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the floor and 5 for 7 from the free throw line, Baldwin also scored 15 and Tyler Wideman added 11 for the Bulldogs.
Amir Bell led Princeton with 22 points, Myles Stephens had 21 and Devin Cannady, 12.
The Tigers shot 60 percent (9-for-15) from beyond the arc to help make up for a huge disadvantage inside.
The Bulldogs finished plus-24 on points in the paint (50-26) and out-rebounded Princeton 31-18.
Coach Mitch Henderson opted to start freshmen Jerome Desrosiers and Sebastian Much at the forward spots along with his big three of Stephens, Cannady and Bell.
Neither Desrosiers nor Much scored and Henderson rotated his forwards freely also using Ryan Schwieger for 19 minutes, Mike LeBlanc for 12 and Alec Brennan for 11.
The Tigers open their home slate on Wednesday against BYU.