Brown Basketball Falls Again - Loses at Princeton 76-74

Brown Basketball Falls Again - Loses at Princeton 76-74

The Brown Bears were expecting a big season in 2021-2022 and the year opened with a near-upset of the University of North Carolina. 

It was the season that the Bears thought they could finish in the top four of the league and qualify for the Ivy League tournament. A goal they have never accomplished.

But, the Ivy League has not been kind.

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The Brown men's basketball team fell to Princeton 76-74 Saturday afternoon at the Jadwin Gymnasium. Pushing the Bears to 1-3 and second to last in the league. The Bears are 9-10 on the season. Princeton is now 3-0 in the league and 13-3 overall

Critical for Brown is Monday's game against Yale.

"Unfortunately, we came up short today," head coach Mike Martin said. "I thought we did a lot of good things to pur ourselves in position to win the game. Princeton challenges you to be very disciplined every possession. We need to respond and I'm confident we will."

Freshman Kino Lilly Jr. led the Bears with a career-high 25 points. Grad student Tamenang Choh contributed 18 points, a team-high seven assists, and four rebounds. Dan Friday was the third Bear in double digits as he scored 10 and added two assists and one steal.

The game saw 19 lead changes with neither side ever leading by more than six.

 

GAME STORY

The Tigers jumped out to an early five-point lead at 11-6 just five minutes into the game. As they would do all game long, the Bears responded to tie the game at 11 and take a 14-13 lead after a Lilly three.

Brown built a five-point lead of its own, the Bears' largest of the game, after a pair of Nana Owusu-Anane free throws to put the visitors up 23-18 just after the halfway point of the first.

With 4:39 remaining in the half, the Tigers took their largest lead of the game at 33-27. The Bears outscored Princeton 15-8 in remainder of the first half, capped off by a three by Lilly as time expired, to go into the break with a one-point lead at 42-41.

The back-and-forth battle continued into the second half as Princeton retook the lead and built a 56-50 advantage six minutes into the frame. Five straight points from Lilly and two from Choh put the Bears back in front at 57-56.

Tied at 59, Perry Cowan hit a three to give Brown it's largest lead of the second half, 62-59.

After the Tigers had regained the lead, Choh sank a tough jump shot to tie the game at 70, was fouled on the play, and hit the free throw to take a 71-70 advantage, the Bears' final lead of the game.

The teams traded free throws down the stretch, and with eight seconds remaining Brown called a timeout, trailing 76-74.

The Bears got off a contested three out of the timeout, but it wouldn't go down and time as expired as the two sides fought for the rebound.

Both teams shot well on the day, as Princeton shot 54.2% from the field and Brown 56.9%. The Tigers were 11-for-25 (44.0%) from three, while the Bears were 8-for-17 (47.1%).

Princeton had 21 attempts from the charity stripe, compared to Brown's 10.