Princeton holds off the Bulldogs

This could be the final straw for Yale's Ivy League title hopes. While the Bulldogs are clearly one of the best teams in the league they are 0-4 against the best of the best.
On Friday night they trimmed a 12-point deficit to three in the final minutes but ran out of time.
Princeton is 8-0 in the league and while it hasn't locked up anything yet, it leads Yale by 3 1/2 games with just five games to go.

Here's Princeton coach Sydney Johnson after the game:



Yale's Greg Mangano on the lack of backcourt scoring on Friday:Princeton guarded our backcourt tough. Those guys have been making shots all year. Everyone talks about me seeing double and triple teams but they switch off screens on those guys and when they do catch it they're out of scoring range.
It makes it hard for them to get the ball. They're denying the passes. It was tough. They played good defense. We had 10 turnovers in the first half and 18 points in the half is not going to do it.

Princeton coach Sydney Johnson on his team's NCAA hopes
"It's hard enough to just focus on winning your conference and that's going to be my focus. Winning our league is going to be hard. Our league is very, very strong: Princeton, Harvard, Pennsylvania are all playing good basketball. You can't get too locked into your conference. You watch TV and you see all those other strong conferences.
"I'm not so sure we'd get two bids in the NCAA. You have to look at the A-10 and the Big East. Can all of us deal with them, I don't know."


Inside the box score
Yale turned the ball over 10 times in the first half and trailed 30-18 at the break. Its bench also went scoreless in the game.

Looking ahead
Yale hosts Penn tonight at the Lee Amphitheater. The crowd on Friday was great but left disappointed. The Quakers held off a Yale rally at Philly earlier in the year.

Yale's Greg Mangano on the lack of backcourt scoring on Friday:
Princeton guarded our backcourt tough. Those guys have been making shots all year. Everyone talks about me seeing double and triple teams but they switch off screens on those guys and when they do catch it they're out of scoring range.
It makes it hard for them to get the ball. They're denying the passes. It was tough. They played good defense. We had 10 turnovers in the first half and 18 points in the half is not going to do it.