Brown is red-hot as PHS boys outlast PDS

Freshman leads Little Tigers to second win

By: Bob Nuse
   Dave Kosa remembers the first time he saw Anthony Brown play basketball.
   "I saw him this summer in the (Princeton) summer league and he scored 45 points in the championship game and his team won," said Kosa, the first-year head boys’ basketball coach at Princeton High. "So I knew that he could score."
   Just a freshman, Brown hasn’t had too many opportunities thus far to show if he can score on the varsity level. But Friday night he got a chance over an extended period and opened some eyes with his play. Brown scored 12 of his 15 points in overtime as the Little Tigers won their second game of the season with a 70-64 double-overtime win over Princeton Day School. The 15 points were one more than he had scored in the entire season entering play on Friday.
   "That’s what I practice for," said Brown, whose three-pointer with two seconds left in the first overtime period forced the second overtime. "I just get in there and play. I have confidence in myself that if I get in there and play I can score. I think they expect me to shoot."
   Brown is Princeton’s version of instant offense off the bench. His teammates seem to realize that once he gets the ball, there isn’t much of a chance they’ll get it back. But when he’s hot, like he was Friday, Brown can make a difference in the game.
   "At the end of the first overtime, his brother Marcus actually had a chance to shoot it but he passed it to Anthony," said Kosa, whose team snapped a 10-game losing streak with Friday’s win. "I think all the guys know that Anthony can shoot the ball. He’s got a lot of confidence in his ability and he’s only going to get better as he gains more experience."
   The same can be said of the whole Princeton team. Just about every player in the lineup is seeing his first extensive varsity action. And over the last week the team seems to b coming together. The Little Tigers bounced back from a tough loss to West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Tuesday to rally for the win over PDS.
   "We’re a young team experience-wise," Kosa said. "We’re trying to get better every day and I think we’re making progress. We made some mistakes (against North) that hurt us at the end of the game. But I think we learned from those mistakes and it helped us in this game tonight.
   "I think that’s a positive sign when we’re able to learn from our mistakes. We keep learning and that’s the important thing."
   Brown’s 15 points led the Little Tigers, while Bennett Murphy and Chris Newton had 13 points apiece. Princeton also received solid guard play from Edson St. Juste, Ryan Morgan and Markeese Brown.
   "They’re our experienced leaders," Kosa said. "Especially Ryan Morgan. He hasn’t played a lot of basketball, but he knows how to be a leader from playing soccer. We were down a couple times tonight and kept fighting back."
   Princeton led, 38-37, after the third quarter, but found itself down, 48-43, with under two minutes to play in the game. A basket by Morgan got the Little Tigers within three, then a pair of free throws by Newton cut the lead to one. After PDS made the lead 50-47, Princeton tied it when St. Juste made one free throw, then Murphy followed a miss of the second free throw with a basket.
   In overtime it was Anthony Brown who took over, scoring eight of Princeton’s 12 points in the first OT, including the shot that tied the game with two seconds left. He then hit another three-pointer to open the second overtime.
   "I had confidence that I could make the shots," Brown said. "It was good to win the game."