Princeton falls to Yale in Philly

(Princeton - 60, Yale - 76)

Last night, just after Yale beat Princeton, 76-60, in the first of two Ivy League playoff games, someone asked Elis' forward Ime Archibong whether or not Yale had finally earned respect in the league.

"I would say yes," Archibong said. "But some of the comments I read in the paper yesterday, no, they don't show us any respect. We didn't get any respect the last two years, we don't get any respect this year."

The Elis win earned them the right to play Penn on Saturday at Lafayette's Kirby Sports Center to decide which team will get the Ivy League's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Princeton coach John Thompson III was quick to give Yale as much credit as he could.

"I think that's a very good team we played," Thompson said of the Elis. "They were prepared to play tonight. I think that the key to the game came down to rebounding."

The Elis outrebounded the Tigers 22-6 in the first half, and 40-28 on the game.

"When we did have a defensive stop," Thompson said. Yale "ended up getting a rebound and putting it back in."

Indeed, even though the Elis missed only half their shots, they seemed to get one or two chances every time down the floor.

Junior center T.J. McHugh carried the bulk of the Elis rebounding and scoring load. McHugh led all scorers with 21, and all rebounders with eight.

"The guards were doing a great job of penetrating and looking for me," McHugh said. "And I was shooting layups. I went six for eight I should go eight for eight if I'm shooting layups all day."

Two Yale scorers besides McHugh finished in double figures. Freshman guard Edwin Draughan had 20, while Archibong added 10.

The Tigers and Elis played even for the first 10 minutes of the game, with Princeton holding a 17-12 lead with 9:00 remaining in the first half. The Elis then went on a 21-2 run, and found themselves up 12, 37-25, at halftime.

"We didn't do a good job in the first ten minutes," Yale coach James Jones said. "But we eventually did a better job of shutting them down, and forcing them to take contested three-point shots."

After the break, the Elis came out firing, extending their lead to 18 with 15:54 left before the Tigers started chipping away.

"I was like, 'come on guys, don't tighten up,'" Archibong said. "We can't play not to lose, we gotta play to win."

Yale did not tighten up too much, as the Tigers never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Yale, with its first 20-win season since 1948, seems to have firmly cemented its new place in the Ivy League hierarchy. The Elis won a share of their first conference title since 1962, and last night's game was another step toward an NCAA tournament berth, something else they have not had since 1962.

But have they gained the respect of the league?

"What's important there," Jones said. "Is that...we're in a situation where, if we haven't done a lot, there's no reason for people to respect us."

Jones added that the Elis have a long way to go before they can loosen Penn and Princeton's perennial stranglehold on the Ivy League title.

"Penn and Princeton have won everything," Jones said. "Just go out there into the Palestra and how many banners do you see?"

Jones then turned to McHugh and asked, "How many banners we got up in John J. Lee [Amphitheater, where Yale plays its home games]?"

"Not many," said a chuckling McHugh.

"Exactly," Jones said. "That's why it's hard to get respect, but let's hope that, 40 years from now, when people look at Yale basketball, they'll have a little different thought about us."

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