Wallace perfect for PU

Senior center hits charity shots in win over Monmouth

By: Justin Feil
   WEST LONG BRANCH — Perfection is a state of mind.
   Judson Wallace’s free throw shooting is a prime example. The Princeton University senior had shot just under 67 percent from the foul line in the men’s basketball team’s first six games. Following a 1-for-3 performance from the charity stripe, Wallace told PU head coach Joe Scott that he didn’t need any advice before shooting free throws.
   "In the early games, he was bringing us over and saying, ‘Hey Jud, you have to make your foul shots.’ I know that," Wallace said. "So a couple days ago, I was like, ‘Coach, let me be.’ So maybe that worked."
   Scott stayed silent on the sidelines before Wallace’s free throws and he delivered a record-setting 13-for-13 performance from the foul line as part of his 23 points in a 56-52 win at Monmouth on Sunday. He was one of five players who shared the previous best of a perfect dozen in a game. The Tigers joined Wallace as a team going 18-for-18 to top the previous best of 15-for-15.
   "I did just say to them today at the shootaround this morning, ‘We have to make fouls. We’re shooting 65 percent as a team,’" Scott said. "When you go on the road against good teams, it comes down to foul shooting a lot. You want to be successful all the time, and you can’t get much better than we were. And most of it was Wallace. The guy made every foul shot he took and that’s how you win close road games."
   While Wallace didn’t feel as though he was any more focused than usual on the line, the screaming Monmouth crowd helped. The same screams that helped fuel the Hawks comeback helped the Tigers hold on.
   "I kind of like it when the crowd’s on me," Wallace said. "It makes me concentrate more."
   Wallace’s final clutch shots enabled the Tigers to improve to 5-2 overall, and they have eight days between games. They’ll face another matchup zone when they travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple on Dec. 20. Scott doesn’t think the Tigers need that much time to prepare, particularly after playing so well at the start Sunday.
   "I think we played a terrific basketball game for 30 minutes," Scott said. "I don’t know if you could play better. Against their zone, on the road, to be up, 37-21, is doing exactly what we wanted against the zone, getting some layups, getting the ball inside, not relying on three-point shooting. And most importantly to me, they had 21 points in 27 or 28 minutes. So our defense was terrific."
   Dejan Delic led the Hawks back into the game by making his next three three-pointers. Two free throws by Blake Hamilton, who for the second straight year attempted 20 free throws against the Tigers, brought Monmouth within two points, 50-48, with 1:10 left. But Will Venable’s layup followed by 1-and-1 conversions by Scott Greenman with 20.5 ticks left and Wallace with 12.6 seconds to go sealed the victory.
   "I would like to think that Will and I are winners," Wallace said. "We just know how to win. Last year, we won a lot of close games. This year, we won some close games. We lost to Wyoming so we can’t really say we’ve won all of them. It just comes down to the individuals making plays, staying with what you do and having the requisite character — that’s one of Coach Scott’s terms — to stay with what you do and make the plays."
   Scott had hoped that the Tigers could have made a few more plays to extend or at least maintain their 16-point lead. But Delic keyed a comeback as the Hawks shots better than 55 percent from three-point range in the second half.
   "On the road, you can’t give the home team anything to feel good about," Scott said. "If you want to win by 20, if you want to drill a team on the road, you can’t ever let them feel good about themselves because the crowd comes in, and then they all feel good. We could see that made them feel good and then it was 10, and then they all sort of started to make their shots. You have to give them credit for not going away."
   Princeton also deserves plenty of credit for handing the Hawks their first loss at Boylan Gym in 16 games. The Tigers also beat Monmouth two years ago in Boylan Gym when Ed Persia sank an 80-foot desperation heave.
   "Every close game," said Monmouth head coach Dave Calloway, "they’ve won. That’s frustrating. From an 80-footer at the buzzer to a couple of two- or three-point wins. Down the stretch, we needed a stop and we didn’t get it. We needed a basket and we couldn’t get it."
   Finding a way to win has helped the Tigers to four straight wins since losing in the closing minutes at Wyoming. After it appeared at 37-21 that Princeton could cruise to a victory, it had to make the plays and several foul shots in the stretch to knock off the Hawks.
   "I didn’t expect them to go away," Scott said. "You have to make them sort of go away. That’s something we continue to stress. If we keep working at it, we’ll get better at it as the year goes on because we’ve got good at the things we’ve stressed so far."
   The Princeton defense that has been the focal point in the early going again surfaced as the Tigers held Monmouth to 1-for-10 from three-point range in the first half and 22-percent shooting overall in the first 20 minutes. The Hawks shot 35 percent for the game.
   "Whatever you emphasize," Scott said, "I believe you get good at. We started with our defense. I think we’re pretty good at that. We have to be a 40-minute team. Being a 40-minute team is sort of learned behavior. It comes from within. It comes from them. I think our guys know that that’s the thing we have to get better at. To me, that’s sort of mental toughness.
   "We don’t play any bad teams," he added. "When you don’t play bad teams, you’re not going to blow anyone out. But I think we can develop the ability to do that. We’re going to continue to work on it."
   When they can’t blow teams out, the Tigers should have more confidence in their ability to win close games after taking another tight contest thanks to Wallace’s free throw shooting.
   "I think I’m a pretty good foul shooter," said Wallace, who is a career 71 percent free throw shooter. "I was shooting like 67 percent going into this game, which isn’t good. I just have to continue to make foul shots."
   Perfection is something the Tigers continue to strive for. For at least one game, the Tigers found it in Judson Wallace’s free throw shooting that delivered a fourth straight victory.