Tigers shut down Lion offense, 53-36
By: Justin Feil
C.J. Chapman hit four three-pointers as the Princeton University men’s basketball team broke out to an 11-point halftime lead and Columbia University never threatened in the second half of a 53-36 Tiger win. The 36 points allowed were the lowest by Princeton in the teams’ series since 1991 when PU won, 56-33.
"All in all, you hold a team to 36 points you have to say your defense is pretty good," said Tiger head coach John Thompson. "I think our defense was pretty good tonight. I think our guys were communicating a little better up and down on defense. We had a feel for what they were going to do. We executed our game plan pretty well."
The win kept Princeton, 6-7 overall, in a tie for first place with Pennsylvania and Yale in the Ivy League at 2-0. The Lions dropped to 0-2 in the Ivies and 4-10 overall. It was Princeton’s 15th consecutive win over Columbia. The Tigers will be off for 16 days for exams before next hosting The College of New Jersey on Jan. 29.
Princeton never trailed Saturday against the Lions. The Tigers got out to a 6-0 lead and held Columbia scoreless for the first 6:27 of the game to set the tone. Columbia would not get an easy basket all night. The Lions did climb within three points, 16-13, on a short jumper by Joe Case.
Princeton responded, however, with a layup by freshman Konrad Wysocki followed by two of Chapman’s long-range bombs to put together an 8-0 run and extend the lead to 24-13 to pull out of danger. Chapman would finish with 15 points to lead the Tigers.
"He hit a big shot when we needed a big shot," Thompson said. "C.J. played a heck of a game. He kept us in it the first half. We had trouble scoring. They played pretty good defense… In the first half, we got a little stagnant. We were standing around a little bit. C.J. came in a hit some big shots for us in the first half… I think he played very, very well this weekend."
After making just two of his previous 17 three-pointers, Chapman went 8-for-11 this weekend against Cornell and Columbia from beyond the arc.
A nifty feed inside from Nate Walton to Wysocki gave the Tigers their largest lead of the half, 28-15, with eight seconds to play before two free throws from Craig Austin made it 28-17 going into the break.
Columbia, which was led by a game-high 17 points from last year’s first-team All-Ivy selection Austin, could not put together a serious rally though they did trim the Princeton lead to 10 points, 40-30, on a three-pointer with 7:40 to play by Derrick Mayo. The Tigers pulled out to their largest lead of the game, 52-35, on Chapman’s fifth three-pointer of the night with 1:19 to play before the teams traded free throws to reach the final score.
"I’m glad the weekend is over," said Thompson, a 1988 PU graduate who was coaching against another former Tiger and teammate, Columbia head coach Armond Hill (PU ’85). "It does make me happy. I was pretty nervous. I haven’t made it a secret. I was wondering if we could get through a Friday and Saturday, with guys playing back-to-back games. I’m glad the weekend is over with two good wins."