Princeton wins Ivy League's NCAA tournament bid, beats Yale 71-59

Princeton didn't have to go 14-0 in conference play to win this season's Ivy League title. Had the Tigers been 13-1 or even 12-2, they likely would still have come to the Palestra as the Ivy League tournament's No. 1 seed, and as the strong favorite to take the conference's automatic NCAA tournament bid.

But it still meant something to Tigers coach Mitch Henderson. After all, the last time Princeton had achieved the feat was 1998, his senior year at Jadwin Gym.

So it is no small thing that Henderson's current team has achieved the Ivy League's new standard of perfection.

With a 71-59 win over Yale in the tournament final Sunday, Princeton is going dancing for the first time since 2011.

"This is a lot more satisfying," Henderson said after watching his team cut down the nets.

As was the case in Saturday's semifinal win over Penn, Princeton's offense struggled early. Midway through the first half, the score was a miserly 14-11 in No. 3 seed Yale's favor, as the Tigers shot 4 for 10 from the field and committed four turnovers.

This time, Princeton (23-6) never looked flustered. The Tigers had no problem matching Yale's speed and athleticism with plenty of their own. Henderson's squad is a different from those of famed predecessors Pete Carril and Bill Carmody. These Tigers are more likely to slam down a dunk than carve out a backdoor cut.

But they can still shoot threes with deadly accuracy, and above all, they can still play ferocious defense. So it was no surprise when, with a little less than four minutes to go in the first half, a rebound by Pete Miller led to an open trey for Stephen Cook that gave Princeton a 26-24 lead.

The Tigers led by 31-29 at halftime. Anthony Dallier put Yale (18-11) in front, 32-31, with the first points of the second half, but that was the Bulldogs' last lead of the game. Princeton took command from there, led by Myles Stephens' 10 points in 4 1/2 minutes after Yale went ahead.

Midway through the second half, the lead was up to 52-42. Yale was able to find good shots, but couldn't keep Princeton from doing the same. So the Tigers gradually pulled away, just as they did in the Ivy League season as a whole.

"This experience, this weekend, has made us a lot better team," Henderson said. "I'm really fired up about [the] opportunity we have."

Stephens, who grew up just down the road from Princeton in Lawrenceville, was the game's leading scorer with 23 points. He was named the tournament's most outstanding player, and was joined on the all-tournament team by Cook, Harvard's Bryce Aiken, Penn's Ryan Betley, and Yale's Sam Downey.

"We've won in so many different ways, and we've won in so many different ways in this building alone," Cook said. "We were able to go 14-0 in this league, so having that history, we always have the confidence to know we can come back."

To which Henderson offered a small correction:

"16-0."