Senior guard helps Little Tigers to sectionals
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Brian Dunlap has been firmly in the middle of the rebirth of the Princeton High boys basketball program.
As a freshman, he was part of a group that won at that level. He moved to the varsity as a sophomore and in the last three years saw the win total go from seven to 12 and then 18 this year.
”My freshman year it was Coach (Jason) Carter’s first year that he was coaching the freshmen,” Dunlap recalled. “We had a good year and we had a good group with me and A.J. (Dowers) and DeQuan (Holman). I think that was the best freshman team they had in a long time. It’s been great to be here the last four years and see it all come together.”
It all peaked for Dunlap and the Little Tigers last week, when they posted wins over Point Pleasant Boro and Monmouth Regional in the Central Jersey Group III tournament. The wins were the school’s first in state tournament play since 1995.
Dunlap was a huge reason the Little Tigers were able to win those two games. He scored 18 in a 47-35 win over Point Pleasant Boro, then came back to score 21 in a 55-46 win at top-seeded Monmouth.
In both games, the ball was in Dunlap’s hands down the stretch in a close game.
Brian Dunlap is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”He is extremely smart off the court, which helps him on the court,” said Carter, who is in his second season as the Little Tigers’ head coach. “He performs well under pressure and that has helped him have success. He does not get flustered and he learns quickly. He won’t make the same mistake twice.
”If he makes a mistake he corrects it. If he accidentally dribbles into a trap, he’ll come over to me and say, ‘don’t worry, it won’t happen again.’ In the playoffs he has shown his maturity and he does not make mistakes.”
Princeton shook off a disappointing loss to Pennington in the Mercer County Tournament to win two state games. The team’s season came to an end with a 72-44 loss to Neptune in the CJ III final on Tuesday.
”I feel like we have been playing our best basketball at the end,” Dunlap said. “It’s been a great run. We’ve had a lot of fans coming out to the games. In these last two games we’ve done an excellent job of closing out the game, which we didn’t always do during the regular season. We’ve definitely been stronger in the playoffs.”
For Dunlap, the progression of the PHS program has been even more special because of the group of players that have gotten it done.
”A lot of us have been playing together for a long time,” he said. “Skye (Ettin) lives two seconds away and we have been playing since elementary school. My freshman year we had DeQuan and Devon (Holman) move in from Ewing and A.J. came in from Cranbury. I think we knew then that we had a special team and a lot of talent to work with.”
Carter coached most of that group as freshmen and could see the talent and potential were there.
”We were 15-5 that year and at one point we ran off 13 or 14 wins in a row,” Carter said. “Brian was the point guard on that team with (Chris) Bechler, (Steven) Fuchs, Dowers and Brandon Merrill. At the end of the games, even as a freshmen, Brian knew what to do and he was a great player to have on your team.”
The loss to Neptune ended Dunlap’s high school career. He’s unlikely to continue playing in college, but did leave the door open to that possibility.
”It depends on where I go to school,” he said. “I might try to walk on. I am looking at schools more for academics and a lot of them are major Division I programs, so that would be tough for me to make.
”No matter what I’ll still be playing somewhere, even if it is intramurals because I love the game so much. I have no intention of dropping it any time soon.”

