Ivy title plot thickens as Yale stuns Princeton

The Elis beat a banged-up Tigers squad for the second straight season Saturday night in New Haven. The Daily Princetonian NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Princeton center Chris Young owned the Yale offense throughout the Tigers' game against the Elis Saturday night, racking up six blocks and generally dominating the middle. With so many injuries depleting the Tigers lineup, Young took over, scoring a game-high 17 points. And on the last play of the game, with Yale leading 44-42, the Tigers turned to Young again. The sophomore received a dish from junior forward Nathan Walton and went up for the tying layup. Just as Young released the ball, however, Yale center Neil Yanke got revenge on the Tigers' big man, knocking Young's effort aside. By the time Young gathered the ball again, the clock had expired and the Yale student body had begun their descent to the court, as the lowly Elis (6-12, 4-2 Ivy League) had knocked off the Tigers (11-8, 3-1) in New Haven, Conn., for the second year in a row. "Well, it's just a terrible loss. We dug ourselves a hole," Princeton coach Bill Carmody said. "On the other hand, you win 10 games in a row, you win the league." This was and was not the Princeton team that everyone knows. As epitomized in the Tigers' zero-substitution win over Georgetown in the first round of the NIT last year, Princeton tends to establish a starting lineup and leave it on the court. The Yale game was no different. The Tigers used only two subs, one of whom was hobbling sophomore forward Eugene Baah, who played only three minutes. The difference this weekend was not in the number of the substitutes but in the names of the starters. Throughout both games, Princeton featured sophomores Ray Robins and Mike Bechtold, two players whose floor time last year was essentially limited to warmups. Senior forward Mason Rocca's mangled ankle, Walton's broken hand, Baah's thigh contusion and freshman guard Spencer Gloger's twisted ankle pushed new faces onto the court. The foreign word "depth" was thrown about with abandon after Friday night's game against Brown in Providence, R.I., when Robins carried the Tigers to a 76-60 win over the Bears (6-10, 4-2). His line: 30 minutes played, 7-of-8 from the field, 3-of-3 from three-point range and 6-of-6 from the free throw line for 23 points. Bechtold provided an equal boost in his 38 minutes played, leading the team with seven rebounds and five assists. The team as a whole lit the Bears up, shooting a season-high 60 percent from the field and 52 percent from three-point range. At the start of the Yale game, the Robins-Bechtold combination looked like the answer once again. In a planned hook-and-lateral style play, Young knocked the opening tip-off forward to Bechtold, who flipped a pass to a streaking Robins on the sideline. Before the Yale defenders knew what happened, Robins had given the Tigers the lead with a two-handed jam. Bechtold's turn came the next trip down the floor as he canned a 16-foot jumper to put the Tigers up 4-0. And so ended the era of offense, as the Tigers would not recover their shooting touch. The key numbers jump off the stat sheet. Princeton was 2-for-16 from three-point range -- 1-for-8 in each half. C.J. Chapman led the charge by going 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. "We don't have the shooters that Princeton has," Yale coach James Jones said. "We caught them on a good night." The Tigers' sputtering offense was offset by their smothering defense. Chapman and sophomore guard Ahmed El-Nokali harried the Elis' ballhandlers, while Young was a wall down low, turning away shot after shot. On a Yale three-on-one with 11 minutes to play in the second half, Yale guard Jason Williams tried to take a layup over Young's head. Young calmly held his hands up and ripped the ball from Williams' grasp. "Chris Young is a hell of a basketball player," Jones said. "Let's face it." The injuries would eventually catch up to Princeton, however, over the last few minutes. El-Nokali fouled out with 5:22 to play, forcing the Tigers to employ a lineup that included only one healthy regular starter in Young. With Gloger on the bench and Chapman ice cold, the Tigers were missing any long-range threat to put them over the top. Walton's broken right hand was next to useless, but during crunch time, he was Princeton's primary playmaker. "You don't have too many options. You look down the bench, I wanted to put somebody in there," Carmody said. "In the last minute, you have to rely on a guy [Walton] with his shooting hand off, trying to pass and drive. You're in trouble." Yale guard Onaje Woodbine scored Yale's 44th point with 3:26 to play, giving the Elis a four-point lead. But in those three minutes and 26 seconds, the Tigers could score only two points -- both on free throws by Robins. "We can't have any more games like this," Young said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.