Men’s Basketball Falls to Princeton at Home, Stay Bottom of the Ivy League

Written in spring 2017 for "Sportswriting," taught by Prof. Jon Readey at Brown University Brown (11-15, 2-8 Ivy) struggled to keep pace with Princeton (22-7, 12-2 Ivy) at home on Saturday, February 18th. The 66-51 victory gave Princeton their thirteenth straight win, and meant that the Tigers swept the Bears in their season series. The result means Princeton continue their push for the Ivy League title, while Brown linger at the bottom of the conference standings and looking unlikely to make the four-team playoff at season’s end. Shooting and turnovers were the difference in this game, as Princeton outshot Brown 46.8%-39.1% from the field and committed five fewer turnovers than Brown’s sixteen. The discrepancy in shooting success rate stuck out in the first half, as Brown hit just 6 of 19 shots whereas Princeton drained 13 out of 24. Meanwhile, turnovers hurt Brown down the stretch as they attempted a late comeback. The game started fairly evenly, with each team struggling to find their shooting streak in the early minutes. Eight minutes in, Brown only trailed 14-8. But a few turnovers and some good offense play in Princeton’s favor quickly made it 25-10 to the Tigers. From then on Brown was playing a game of catch-up that never quite came to fruition. The Bears had an airball, travel, and shot clock violation all near the end of the half that allowed Princeton to preserve their lead, going into the locker room at halftime up 33-17. Princeton’s Myles Robinson ’19 finished the half with twelve points, while Brown co-captain Steven Spieth ‘17 lead the team’s first-half scoring with six points. The second half didn’t start much better for the Bears, with Princeton extending their lead to twenty within the first four minutes. A massive block under the hoop by Princeton helped assert the Tigers’ dominance, and also took down the referee. Brown’s shooting had yet to improve, still hovering around the 30% mark on field goal conversions. The half itself was fairly disjointed, as Brown started intentionally fouling to prevent transition play and layups early on and both teams called a high number of timeouts. Midway through the second half, Brown started to pick up some momentum and the team as a whole seem to regain their shooting streak. Guards Tavon Blackmon ’17 and JR Hobbie ’17 knocked down threes within a few minutes of each other to pull the Bears within 10 with 8:42 remaining. But that was as close as Brown would get to for the rest of the game. Princeton quickly put up six unanswered points, including a ferocious slam dunk by Stephens. Spieth made an impressive drive to hoop to stop the bleeding at 52-38, but Princeton kept putting points on the board. The teams traded baskets and Princeton continued to be efficient from the free throw line, hitting twelve of sixteen in the second half. The gap was too wide to close and Brown elected not to continually intentional foul for the final few minutes, and the game ended 66-51. Brown head coach Mike Martin ’04 acknowledged that Princeton’s reputation for tough defense influenced the game heavily. “They really make you work offensively,” he said. Martin also commented on Brown’s early frustration: “The game got away from us a bit in the first half.” Spieth echoed his coaches’ thoughts, saying, “We’re a really offensive team… we’ve got to give them credit for taking away what we do well, especially in the first half.” The loss was Brown’s fifth in a row and seventh of their last eight, all coming against Ivy League opponents. Road matches at Dartmouth and Harvard and a pair of home games against Columbia and Cornell round out the Bears’ season, as their chances of making the conference tournament now appear slim.