By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Princeton Day School boys basketball is in the process of putting its new pieces into place.
The Panthers have flashed their potential with a 59-44 win over Pennington. But they’ve also shown they still have some work to do during a 54-49 loss to the George School on Wednesday night.
Overall, first-year head coach Tim Williams has been pleased with the way his young team has approached the first three games of the season.
“I am really happy,” said Williams, whose team is 1-2. “We have some great individual pieces. We do lack a little height. But we’re still learning to play together. There are still some holes in some of the things we are trying to do. We have made progress every practice and every game. And even though we lost this game I thought we made some progress.”
PDS started well in the loss to George, but a rough shooting third quarter left the Panthers in a 14-point hole. They were able to cut the lead to four points late in the game but could get no closer.
“I loved our energy to start,” Williams said. “Our guys played hard. That’s what I ask them to do every day. We talked before the game about starting faster because we did the same type of thing against Solebury. We got down and then all of a sudden we roared back.
“We said why are we waiting to get down like that before we play hard? So we talked about that before the game and said let’s not get down 14 to 18 points right from the start and I thought we did that. I thought we played well at the start.”
Freshman David Coit led the Panthers with 15 points, while juniors John McArthur and Chase Lewis each added 13. McArthur was the top presence on the boards, while Lewis is the lone returning starter.
“We have a couple new additions,” Lewis said. “It was good to beat Pennington. We lost to them last year and my freshman year we lost to them twice. So it was nice to get a win against them.
“I feel like we still have to step up. Once everyone feels more comfortable I think the team will be what we think we can be.”
The Panthers will play Paul Robeson in the Chestnut Hill Academy Tournament today and will continue in the tournament through the weekend. Their next seven games are on the road with the next home game Jan. 11 against Calvary Christian.
