Hun grad nets 25 in season-opener
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
With substantial point production lost to graduation, the Princeton University men’s basketball team found a new source.
New point guard Doug Davis scored a freshman debut game record 25 points, but the Tigers needed more than a one-player outpouring as Central Michigan held on, 55-53, in the season opener for both Friday at Jadwin Gym.
”We lost the game,” Davis said. “That’s all I’m thinking about right now. It’s a heartbreaker. We lost by two points, so any little thing we could have done — like a rebound, or a steal or playing more aggressively — we could have pulled it out. So I’m upset that we lost the game.”
The Hun School graduate took the place of another former Raider, last year’s co-captain and leading points producer Noah Savage, as someone the Tigers can look to for points this season.
”Obviously he helped us out tonight and that’s a trend that we hope continues,” said PU head coach Sydney Johnson, whose team hosts Maine 7 p.m. Wednesday. “We don’t want to be a team that’s just riding one guy. As well as Doug shot the ball, we probably want a better balance. We want some other guys chipping in so we’re harder to beat.”
Davis’ 25 was the most ever by a freshman in his debut game, and the most by a player in his first start for the Tigers since Bill Bradley scored 28 in his sophomore debut in 1962. Davis scored 11 in the first half as the Tigers went to the locker room with a 23-22 lead.
Shortly thereafter, it slipped away for the young Tigers. After a Davis pull-up jumper gave Princeton a 27-24 lead, the Chippewas scored 16 of the next 18 points to take a 40-29 lead. Chris Kellermann had 10 of his game-high 28 in the run.
”We’re an inexperienced team,” Johnson said. “That inexperience showed up. We zoned out for a couple minutes, and one of their better players made us pay for it. That’s going to be the case every game out if we don’t correct that.”
Davis helped Princeton claw back. His three-pointer ended the 16-2 run. Princeton got within two points on a Dan Mavraides’ three before Central Michigan opened a 52-47 lead with less than a minute left. A pair of Davis layups cut it to 52-51 with 30 seconds to go. After Robbie Harman hit both free throws for the Chippewas, Davis created space with a jab off the dribble and stepped back to hit a 20-foot shot with 10 seconds left. His foot was ruled on the new three-point line and left the Tigers a point short.
”I felt it was a three,” said Davis, who made 4-of-9 from beyond the arc and 10-of-21 overall. “I tried to set my feet up so that it would be a three, but I guess I didn’t get it. I wanted to tie the game up with that shot.”
After Harman hit one free throw, Davis rushed the ball up court but was double-teamed and the Chippewas came away with the victory. Johnson did not want to call a time out in the situation after seeing his team fight almost all the way back from the 11-point hole.
”We just kind of scrapped and decided maybe we were going to follow through on what we needed to do,” Johnson said. “That was a nice sign. It was, but it’s still a loss.”
Even in the loss, the Tigers found one answer as to how their freshmen would handle college basketball. Davis played all 40 minutes in his debut and fellow freshman Patrick Saunders also started and played 33 minutes. With Max Huc in, at one point the Tigers had three freshmen on the court at once. Princeton also started Pawel Buczak in place of Zach Finley, but Finley came off the bench with his hand heavily wrapped due to a finger injury and made 3-of-4 shots while grabbing eight rebounds in 28 minutes.
The Tigers figure to get a healthier Finley against Maine, and they are looking for some increased balance to go with Davis.
It was quite a debut, one that even he had a hard time envisioning. Playing his last two seasons just a couple of miles away at Hun, Davis had seen Princeton in action as a fan before.
”It was different,” he said. “I came to a couple games last year and I really didn’t actually picture myself on the court. I pictured myself going to the school and everything, but being the court was a whole lot different from watching in the stands.”
It only took one game for Princeton to be happy to have Doug Davis on the court.

