By: centraljersey.com
HOPEWELL – The taste of a disappointing first-round loss the state tournament was still there for the Princeton High boys basketball team.
This time, the Little Tigers didn’t want to go through that same experience.
After seeing a seven-point first-half lead become a six-point fourth quarter deficit, Princeton rallied to beat Hopewell Valley, 51-47, Tuesday night in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group III tournament.
"I was on the bench watching last year for that game and I knew I didn’t want it to end like that this year," said sophomore guard Chris Bechler, who has 12 points for the Little Tigers in the win over Hopewell.
"We had a lead and then were down. You don’t want to get scared and nervous and turn the ball over. We knew we had to keep our poise and get a good shot."
Princeton trailed, 39-33, early in the fourth quarter but went on an 8-0 run on baskets by Bechler, Davon Black and Eamon Cuddy, as well as free throws by Matt Hoffman to take a 41-39 lead. The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes, with Eric Shorter accounting for six straight Princeton points and the game was tied at 47-47.
Ben Harrison’s basket gave Princeton the lead and solid defense thwarted the Bulldogs down the stretch before Cuddy sealed the game with a pair of free throws.
With the win, Princeton advanced to face top-seeded Colts Neck in a game that was scheduled to be played Thursday.
The other three Packet-area boys teams all suffered opening-round losses in CJ IV on Monday. West Windsor-Plainsboro South let a lead slip away in the fourth quarter and fell to Brick Memorial, 62-59. Jake Donohue had 20 points and Eric Bierck added 19 for the Pirates. Montgomery gave Trenton all it could handle before falling 65-62 on the road. Ryan McCoy had 25 points and Matt Mignon added 12 for the Cougars. WW-P North dropped a 75-62 decision at home to Manalapan. Ethan Harel had 16 points, Chris Okorodudu had 13 and Mike Klotz added 12 for the Knights.
For Princeton, it came down to execution down the stretch against Hopewell.
"Our out of conference schedule this year has prepared us for these moments and hopefully it will prepare us down the road," said Princeton coach Jason Carter, whose team evened its record at 12-12. "It was a similar game to last year. Ocean came in with a losing record and hopefully we learned from it. It didn’t look like it was going that way for a while, but we made some clutch plays and that comes from wanting to win. I am glad to see it is coming at the right time."
Hopewell held Princeton’s leading scorer, Cuddy, to just eight points. But others stepped up and provided scoring. Shorter finished with 13 points, Bechler had 12 and Black added 11.
"In the beginning of the year I was just concentrating on defense," Bechler said. "But when Eamon started to drop 20 points every game I knew I had to step up because other teams knew he was going to score and they concentrated on him. He is no secret. Everyone knows about him and that opens things up for the rest of us."
Cuddy was able to move the ball around and that opened up the outside game.
"We just have to do a better job of reading the situation," Carter said. "Of course they are going to blanket Eamon, he has been playing very well the last couple games. He has to recognize where the double-team is coming from and be able to pass out of it. If we can execute our offense out of that hopefully later in the game teams will cover him one on one."
Getting scoring from a player like Bechler helps. Carter has been encouraging him to look to score more as the season goes on.
"I have been telling him he has to be a threat and he has been shooting the ball more," Carter said. "He’s one of the first guys in the gym every day and one of the last to leave. There have been maybe six or seven times I have said you need to go home, I have kids to get home to. He loves the game and he really works at it. A lot of these guys are like that."

