Midway through the second half of last night’s Princeton-Bucknell matchup, Princeton’s leading returning scorer, senior Judson Wallace, finally scored his first points of the night. Patiently, he stood and sunk two free throws.

Wallace’s slow, deliberate release was a microcosm of the game, which featured more layups and expired shot clocks than an intramural scrimmage in Archbold Gymnasium.

Joe Scott won his inaugural game as head coach of the Tigers, 61-48, last night at the Carrier Dome. The two teams, which were picked preseason to win their conferences, started in front of a few hundred scattered fans. By game’s end, though, several thousand had filed in for the second game of the night between Syracuse and Northern Colorado.

‘It was a good opening game for us,’ Scott said. ‘We played well. I really liked our defense. I think our defense played pretty good. I came in knowing (Bucknell head coach Pat Flannery’s) team would play well. They just hang in there and hang in there and hang in there.’

After Princeton jumped out to an early 8-1 lead, the teams experienced a 4:35 scoring drought during which Princeton tried running the backdoor cuts and screens that are a trademark of the program.

Bucknell’s John Griffin ended the drought with a 3-pointer at 12:11, pulling the Bison to within four, 8-4. Bucknell would tie the game at 20 with 3:53 remaining in the first half.

From there, the Bison stampeded downhill.

‘I think winning the first half was pretty big for us,’ Scott said of the 30-22 halftime score. ‘We scored the last four points, and it gave us a little breathing room. I thought that was when we played our best basketball.’

Wallace was held scoreless for so long because of two quick fouls in the first half that placed him on the bench. Though the 6-foot-10 center finished with only four points, he carried his weight with six assists.

‘Seniors know how to have good halves and bad halves,’ Scott said. ‘Players have the ability to get in foul trouble and then come out in the second half and not have that affect them. I think that’s what we saw with Judson. He threw some nice passes. I saw him come out of nowhere for two rebounds, and I said to him after the game, ‘We need you to do that every game.”

Sophomore Luke Owings, who started his first game for the Tigers, led Princeton with 21 points. He was 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

‘We have 15 guys on this team who can score,’ Owings said. ‘It just happened to be my night. I don’t think individuality matters too much to Coach Scott right now. He’s trying to get us to play as a team. I think it’s just every guy out there trying to give it their all.’

Though Princeton is well known for its unique offense, its makeshift 1-3-1 defense stifled the Bison, limiting Bucknell to 48 points. Bucknell was held under 48 points only twice all of last season.

‘I don’t know what it is either,’ Scott said when asked what type of defense he implemented. ‘I think that’s the hard part about learning it. I don’t know what it is and I don’t tell them what it is. They just figure it out on their own. I believe that if they figure it out on their own, it becomes theirs.’

Published on November 11, 2004 at 12:00 pm