No. 15 Princeton stuns No. 2 Arizona 59-55 in March Madness

SACRAMENTO,Calif. (AP) —Mitch Henderson’s victory leapthatpunctuated Princeton’s famed upset over UCLA in 1996 has become aniconic moment. There is a picture of the joyous jump at theschool’s practice facility that serves as a constant reminder ofwhat’s possible.

NowHenderson’s current players have authored one of their own.

History repeats itself. Pete Carril issmiling upstairs - Congrats @M_Henderson98pic.twitter.com/V2cbrCVz6I

Ryan Langborglifted Princetonto its first lead with 2:03 to play and theTigers used a late-game run to earn their first NCAA Tournament winin 25 years, topping No. 2 seed Arizona 59-55 on Thursday.

“Prettysurreal feeling,” guard Matt Allocco said. “To beat a great teamlike that on this stage is a pretty special feeling. But also Ican’t say I’m surprised. This team has been so good all year, sogritty. On paper, it’s going to look like a big upset. But webelieve in each other and we think we’re a really good team. Whenwe’re at our best, then I think we can beat anybody in thecountry.”

The15th-seeded Tigers (22-9) scored the final nine points, holding thePac-12 Tournament champion scoreless over the final 4:43.

TosanEvbuomwan scored 15 points in Princeton’s first tournament victorysince beating UNLV in 1998 when Henderson was a player for theTigers.

Hendersonalso played on the 1996 team that beat defending champion UCLA inthe school’s final tournament under coach Pete Carril, who died inAugust. This victory fittingly came in Sacramento, where Carrilspent time as an NBA assistant after retiring as Tigers coach.

“He would bevery proud of the group,” Henderson said. “He wouldn’t want anyattention to be brought other than what these guys did. They playedto win. We knew we had to keep the game low possessions.”

Princetonadvanced to play seventh-seeded Missouri in the second round of theSouth Region. The Tigers beat Utah State 76-65.

AzuolasTubelis scored 22 points for the Wildcats (28-7), who haven’t won atournament game in consecutive years since 2014-15.

It marked thethird straight year and 11th time overall that a No. 15 seed won afirst-round game. Arizona is the only school to be on the wrong endof one of those upsets twice, also losing to Steve Nash and SantaClara in 1993.

“If you wantto be a great player, you want to be a great coach, we all got tolearn from this,’” coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We got to go back andfigure out what happened and understand the value of being up 10 to12 points with 10 minutes to go, putting the hammer on people, notletting people get back in the game.”

The Wildcatsseemed in control of this one when Oumar Ballo’s basket put them up10 with eight minutes left.

But theTigers responded with seven straight points, capped byasecond-chance 3-pointerfrom Blake Peters that made it 51-48with about six minutes left.

They closedthe game with a 9-0 run — just like they did in their mostmemorable tournament win against UCLA in 1996.

KeeshawnKellman started the spurt with a putback dunk before Langborg hit ajumper and then a layup to give the Tigers the lead.

The Wildcatsthen missed all five shots down the stretch and Princeton put itaway at the foul line. Langborg also blocked Courtney Ramey’s shotwith 50 seconds left and the Tigers protecting a one-pointlead.

“When Iblocked it I saw the whole crowd erupt,” he said. “My teammateswere all locked in with each other and it was kind of that momentwhere you know, like, ‘Wow we can really do this. We’re going to dothis and nothing’s going to stop us.’”

Ramey, whohit a game-winning shot in the Pac-12 Tournament, missed acontested 3-pointer with 14 seconds left that could have tied thegame. Kerr Kriisa also missed from long range after an offensiverebound,sending Princeton into an early celebration.

LETTHEM PLAY

The gamefeatured just 12 free throws, with four coming after intentionalfouls by Arizona late in the game. The Wildcats went to the lineseven times despite a big size advantage with Tubelis andBello.

“You goinside over and over and over again, and you shoot seven freethrows. I mean, I don’t know if they’re fouls or not. They must nothave been because obviously they didn’t get called,” Lloyd said.“When the game is reffed like that, it makes it tough.”

BIGPICTURE

Princeton:The Tigers gave the Ivy League its first tournament win since 2016when Yale beat Baylor. The conference had been one-and-done thelast four trips, having missed the 2021 edition because ofCOVID-19.

Arizona: TheWildcats got little help offensively outside of Tubelis and Ballo,who combined for 35 points. The rest of the team shot 9 for 27.

UPNEXT

Princetonwill look to win two games in the tournament for the first timesince 1983.