Coming into the weekend, the Princeton men's basketball team had its road clearly mapped. The journey wouldn't be easy, but it was easily explainable. Win your last three, and you're in the NCAA Tournament as Ivy League champions.
It didn't turn out that way.
After Yale seemingly couldn't miss against Princeton last night, the Tigers failed to rebound, figuratively and literally, at Brown, and the Ivy League championship dreams came to an end.
While Harvard held off Cornell in Cambridge, Brown was busy putting the kibosh on Princeton's hopes in a 80-67 win for the Bears.
Princeton will complete its regular season Tuesday at The Palestra against Penn at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers fall to 16-11 overall, 9-4 in the Ivy League.
Brown ends its season at 13-15 overall, 7-7 in the Ivy.
Princeton fell behind by as many as 10 points in a first half that saw the Bears outrebound Princeton 22-8 and outshoot Princeton 54.5 percent to 35.7 percent. That allowed Brown to overcome turning the ball over 11 times before the break to Princeton's three.
The first half ended with a little bit of hope as Denton Koon picked up a rebound and began charging down the center of the floor with three second left, seemingly floating in the air and banking a 3-pointer in from just inside halfcourt. That pulled Princeton within 33-29, but the Bears quashed any momentum right out of the halftime break.
The Brown lead was 12 less than four minutes into the second half, and Princeton never got closer than five points the rest of the way. The Tigers began sending Brown to the foul line with less than four minutes to go, hoping to extend the game. Brown didn't put the game away as easily as it could have, going 27 of 46 from the stripe in the second half, but Princeton failed to convert on the other end.
Brown ended the game outshooting PRinceton 50 percent to 35.6 percent and outrebounding Princeton 43-29.
Ian Hummer led Princeton with 21 points, ahead of 13 from T.J. Bray and 11 from Hans Brase. Brown had four players in double figures, led by 24 from Sean McGonagill.
Postgame notes
• Ian Hummer had 11 assists on the weekend, moving him past former teammate Marcus Schroeder '10 (295) last night and head coach Mitch Henderson '98 (304) tonight for fourth on the Princeton career assists list, now with 305. Assists have been kept since 1974-75.
• Hummer tied former teammate Douglas Davis '12 with 122 games played, the most in Princeton history.
• Hans Brase finished in double-figure points for the first time since he scored 10 on Feb. 16 at Harvard.
• For the weekend, Yale and Brown outshot Princeton 55 percent to 42.7 percent.
