By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Princeton University men’s basketball team nearly pulled off a first round stunner in the NCAA tournament., The 12th-seeded Tigers gave fifth-seeded Notre Dame everything it could handle before falling, 60-58, on Thursday in Buffalo. Princeton trailed, 59-58, when Devin Cannday’s shot with one second left that would have given the Tigers the lead just missed the mark., The loss snapped Princeton’s 19-game winning streak. Notre Dame advanced to face fourth-seeded West Virginia, which held off a pesky Bucknell team to win its opener., “I thought that shot’s gone in an awful lot for us,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said after the game. “Devin’s shot. It was a great look for us. I think we tried to get to the rim, but I thought Notre Dame, they’re smart, they’re tough. They don’t really put anybody on the floor that doesn’t have a ton of experience. And I thought that was the story of the game, was they had a lot more experience in this moment, and it showed. And we got — this team has been punched in the face a little bit throughout the course of the season, but they always respond. I’ve been on teams where that doesn’t happen. They did a great job but I was pleased with the chances that we had.”, Princeton trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half but could never quite shake the Tigers. Princeton had a chance in the end to pull off the upset but came up just short., Senior Spencer Weisz led the Tigers with 15 points, while classmate Steven Cook had 11 and Myles Stephens added 10. The loss brought to an end the careers of Weisz and Cook, who made a huge impact on the program over the course of their careers., “They looked just like my freshman did four years ago,” Henderson said after the game. “What you see now is a responsibility, and, you know, the one thing that’s wild is once they figure it out and they are exactly where you want them, they graduate., “I’m going to miss them all so much, and in particular, these two guys. Spencer has allowed us to play a certain way, and we’re very difficult to guard. And then Steve, we were just in the locker room, and some of his teammates were saying some incredible things about him. He truly makes you want to be a better person when you’re around him. He’s academic All American, our first since 1998, and he certainly deserves every bit of that recognition.”
