Second-half shooting propels Texas past Tigers, 66-49
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University men’s basketball team held No. 3 seed Texas to just 22 points in the first half to build a three-point edge in its NCAA tournament opener, but couldn’t stop the Longhorns’ red-hot shooting in the second half.
Texas made six of its first seven three-pointers and shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half for a 66-49 win over the 14th-seeded Tigers at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Thursday. Brandon Mouton led the Longhorns with 23 points, including 18 in the second half. Will Venable kept the Tigers in the game with 16 points, 11 in the first half.
The Tigers, who finished their season with a 20-8 record, scored the first basket of the second half, as they had to open the game, and as they had done in the first half, they struggled in the minutes that followed. Mouton, Texas’ leading scorer who had just five first-half points, scored eight points in the first 3:15 of the second half as Texas took the lead for good.
Down, 25-22, at halftime, the Longhorns used two three-pointers by Mouton and two three-pointers by Kenton Paulino to take a 36-29 lead with 15:32 left in the game.
A layup by Will Venable brought Princeton within five points, 36-31. But Texas answered with a 10-2 run to establish a 46-33 lead on a layup by Mouton with 11:42 left. The Texas score came after Venable fully extended his body to dive for a steal, but Andre Logan missed a fast-break layup at the other end and Mouton finished his chance in transition for a four-point swing. The Tigers spent the remainder of the game trying to cut the Texas lead under 10.
Ed Persia, the lone senior on Princeton, made his first appearance in the game in the second half after a thigh contusion had cost him the last five games of the regular season, and hit his first three-pointer, a shot from beyond the arc with 10:49 left. That shot cut the Texas lead to 10. The Tigers cut it under double figures three times in the final eight minutes, twice on three-point shots by Scott Greenman that cut the Texas lead to nine points each time.
Princeton got its closest in that stretch on a layup by Judson Wallace with 3:45 left to make it 56-48. Wallace, the Tigers’ leading scorer at better than 15 points per game, finished with nine points on 4-for-13 shooting.
The Tigers had a chance to trim the deficit further after Wallace’s layup but Logan turned the ball over on Princeton’s next possession and the lead went back to double figures on a three-point play by Royal Ivey, who had 15 points for the Longhorns.
Princeton scored the first basket of the game, a hook by Wallace just 25 seconds after tip-off, but fell behind, 6-2, as it went the next 8:01 without another field goal.
The Tigers rallied from that four-point deficit on the strength of Venable. Venable, as he had in becoming a first-team All-Ivy honoree this year, seemed to take over single-handedly. In a span of 2:36, he scored seven unanswered points, including two free throws with 10:30 left in the first half to give the Tigers a lead they would sustain until the second half.
Venable was successful penetrating against Texas’ man-to-man defense. When Wallace hit the Tigers’ first three-pointer of the game with 9:07 left, and Venable followed with a 1-and-1, Princeton finished off a 12-0 run to give it its largest lead of the first half, 14-6. Venable led the Tigers with 11 points in the first half.
After Logan’s three-point play helped Princeton sustain its eight-point edge, 20-12, Texas closed the first half on a 10-5 run as Brian Boddicker scored five of his 12 first-half points in the final 1:29.
Two-for-12 three-point shooting prevented the Tigers, who struggled more after Texas went to a zone defense, from building a larger lead. Princeton, which finished the regular season ranked second in the country in scoring defense, held Texas to 22 first-half points. The Longhorns averaged 36.8 points in the first half during the regular season. Texas, which stayed in the first half thanks to six offensive rebounds, shot just 8-for-24. Princeton was 2-for-22 from the floor.
For the game, the Tigers shot just 36 percent, and made only five of 26 three-pointers. Texas also held a 39-25 advantage in rebounding, and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds.
Princeton last won an NCAA tournament game in 1998, when they beat UNLV, 69-57, before falling to Michigan State in the second round. The Tigers looks to be in good position for a return trip to the NCAAs. Princeton, which won its second outright Ivy League championship in four seasons, returns all but Persia next season.