City of Basketball Love

Zach Drapkin (@ZachDrapkin)
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For a quiet guy, Myles Stephens made plenty of noise with his play during the inaugural Ivy League Tournament.

After scoring a career-high 21 points against Penn on Saturday, Stephens was back at it Sunday afternoon against Yale.

Stephens topped his career high again, dropping 23 points and eight rebounds, and still, Bulldogs head coach James Jones hardly noticed.

“He’s a silent assassin,” Jones said. “I looked at the scoreboard, one of these sheets at one of the timeouts. He had 18 points and I couldn’t believe he had 18 points, they were the quietest 18 points.”

Nevertheless, Stephens did score those 23 points, did get named the Ivy League Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and did deliver Princeton an NCAA Tournament berth.

The Tigers won the game, 71-59, and the Lawrenceville, N.J. native had a lot to do with it.

“Myles is quietly one of the biggest forces in the league. Our success was Myles playing more minutes.” Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson said. “He brings a lot to the table, and when he’s going we’re very good.”

The Tigers didn’t look very good early on in Sunday’s contest. They found themselves down 7-2 three-and-a-half minutes in and could not put a shot or pass on target.

But with the score 7-6 at the 13:48 mark, Stephens gave Princeton life, with a flamboyant block on Yale’s Alex Copeland to prove him worthy of being the Ivy League’s Defensive Player of the Year.

As Copeland drove through the lane, Stephens matched him stride-for-stride, rising up to thrust the ball back in the direction of its sender, much to the excitement of his teammates and the Princeton fans in attendance.

“Having a big block defensively gets us going,” teammate Spencer Weisz said. “Once you get a block such as Myles’s, it makes them second-guess themselves when they go to the rim and it just gave us momentum going forward.”

Shortly after, Stephens forced an Anthony Dallier turnover and found Weisz on the other end for a transition three, giving Princeton an 11-9 lead.

Down seven with seven minutes to go in the half, he was there once again to keep Princeton on track, scoring five straight points to slash the deficit back down to two.

By halftime, the Tigers had taken a 31-29 lead, and, more importantly, found their mojo.

Stephens continued to facilitate that mojo through the halftime interval, scoring 10 of Princeton’s first 16 points in the period, including a three-point play and a three-point basket, to string together a 47-39 lead.

“I think offensively we try to take advantage of mismatches,” he said. “Whether it’s posting up or driving to the rim, kicking out or finishing at the rim, I think we tried to take advantage of that and it really helped us out this weekend."

The rest of the talented Tigers cast took it home from there, not allowing Yale to get within less than seven points the rest of the way.

Soon enough, Princeton led by 12 with a minute to go, and Stephens drove for two to put the cherry on top.

Even though not every Princeton player had his best individual performance on the afternoon, the team pulled out a win, and that was what counted.

Weisz, the conference Player of the Year, shot 3-for-11 on the day for just seven points to go along with his eight assists, but to him, all that mattered was the final score.

“We won, so I don’t even care,” he said. “Whether the shots are falling or not, it is what it is, but I have to continue to communication coach’s message to the guys and stay even-keeled.”

His fellow senior, All-Ivy First Team selection Steven Cook, had 15 points and no turnovers on the day. Sophomore Devin Cannady added 13 for the Tigers.

Princeton now heads to the NCAA Tournament, where the Tigers will play Notre Dame in the first round. Having found a way win all 16 of their conference games this season, they figure they’ll find a way to make some noise in March Madness as well.

“This year, we’ve won in so many different ways, and we’ve won in so many different ways in this building alone, so as as team I think we never think we’re really out of it,” Cook said. “We’ve been in big games before, we’ve won big games before, and we think we can match up with anybody in the country, so we’re definitely capable of making some noise.”