Tigers have won seven straight
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Pawel Buczak’s 15 points led the Princeton University men’s basketball team to a 61-41 win over Cornell University on Friday.
Few who saw the Tigers last season could believe either would be possible only a year later.
But the Tigers believe in what they are building, and it’s a big reason why they sit alone in first place after a sweep of defending Ivy League champion Cornell and Columbia on Saturday.
”When I was here as a player, when I was fortunate enough to work with Coach (John) Thompson at Georgetown, the stuff that we do, the guys get better,” said PU head coach Sydney Johnson, whose team has won seven in a row and moved above .500 for the first time this season at 9-8 overall, 4-0 in Ivy play. “They come a little early before practice. They stay a little late. Over the course of a season or two seasons or three seasons, guys get better. So it’s not totally shocking that Pawel has come a long way, that Kareem (Maddox) has come a long way.”
Maddox made big plays down the stretch to end Cornell’s 19-game Ivy winning streak — a three-point play that pushed the PU lead to double digits for good, a block at the other end and then a charge taken shortly thereafter. The sophomore forward finished off his 11-point, 7-rebound effort with a crowd-pleasing dunk and free throw to seal the Tigers first win at Jadwin Gym over Cornell in five years.
”We have to keep our focus,” Maddox said Friday. “It’s hard not to be happy about this win. We’re just going to try to stay focused.”
Maddox had done it before against Cornell. He scored 16 last year at home against the Big Red in a game that came down to the final minutes.
”I wasn’t thinking about that,” Maddox said. “I was thinking about this year and how we’ve improved as a team through the summer and fall. I just knew we could compete with these guys.”
Buczak’s improvements had a lot to do with it. The junior center scored two total points last year against Cornell — in two games of play and was largely a non-factor. Friday night, he showed how far he has come by tying his career high of 15 and played solid all-around.
Buczak’s layup made it 4-0 as the Tigers never trailed Friday. He made the first of his three three-pointers to open a 9-4 lead. His second one pushed a two-point lead to five with six minutes left in the first half.
”I’ll go where things open up for me,” Buczak said. “I’ve been working on my shot lately. I guess they were there open today, so I took them.”
His third of the game finished a two-minute flurry that proved crucial in the win, and showed just how hungry the Tigers are for redemption this season. Leading just 34-31 with 12 minutes left, Cornell stole the ball for a potential game-tying possession, but the ball was poked away at halfcourt and Buczak sprawled out to retrieve it while landing awkwardly to cradle the loose ball.
With the ball back after a timeout, Buczak faked an outside shot that the Big Red had to respect because he had made his first two, then drove for an easy lay-in. On their next possession, Buczak made good on his third shot from behind the arc and the Tigers were comfortably in control again.
”Pawel has played well,” Johnson said. “We want to win games. We want to have fun along the way. We never want to lose sight of the collective.
”We’re a team. I just think it’s a major step for this program and this university.”
Buczak helped win the matchup with Cornell 7-footer Jeff Foote, who was limited to just six points with help from Zach Finely off the bench. Last season, Buczak played sparingly in both Cornell games.
”I’ve worked really hard over the summer to improve and get stronger,” Buczak said. “I think in terms of playing against Foote, being stronger, that helped me hold my ground a bit more.”
It’s part of an almost shocking improvement in the Tigers, who have already won three more games than all of last year. The win over Columbia on Saturday that followed gave the Tigers more Ivy wins than all of last year as well.
”Guys have gotten better because they’ve committed to what we’re doing,” Johnson said. “I hope and pray that will continue. That’s been the way things have been here at Princeton for a while. It didn’t start with what we do. It started with Coach Carril and a few coaches before him. But guys get better here.”
Finley led Princeton with 11 points in the 63-35 win over Columbia on Saturday. He was the only PU player in double figures. Buczak had eight points and eight rebounds. Princeton forced Columbia to miss its first 13 shots of the game.
The Tigers play at Yale on Friday and at Brown on Saturday.