Princeton’s players build confidence

Steve Carp

Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 11:39 a.m.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- They won't go so far as to say they told you so, but, well, they told you so.

Gabe Lewullis told you UNLV couldn't stop everything. Mitch Henderson thought they could get open looks from downtown. Steve Goodrich was right when he said this team had something to prove.

And Princeton did indeed prove something to the 16,105 who were in the Hartford Civic Center and the 12 guys dressed in red that tried to contain the Tigers. This team isn't a fluke.

Bill Carmody's team played like the No. 8 team in the nation and the fifth seed in the East Regional should. It overcame a slow start, took over with an impressive 20-0 run, answered UNLV's challenge in the second half, and won going away 69-57 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Whether it was the seven back-door layups or the nine 3-point field goals or the 18 points it scored off of UNLV turnovers, Princeton did what Princeton does -- it lulls you to sleep, then sticks the dagger in your back.

"Giving up easy layups like that has got to be tough for a team to take," Lewullis said. "At the end of the game, the defense gets real tired and that's when we really get layups with the back-door."

The Tigers were down 13-7 early in the first half as they came out tentative and shooting tight. But once Brian Earl knocked down a trey, it seemed to get Princeton untracked. And once Princeton became untracked, UNLV became unglued.

"It was like we couldn't do anything about it," Rebels forward Kevin Simmons said. "We were getting good shots but nothing was dropping. All of a sudden, they've run off 20 and we're in trouble."

UNLV coach Bill Bayno said: "To beat them, you have to match their baskets with baskets. When we went cold, we stopped matching."

Carmody said despite the tremendous nationwide interest in the UNLV matchup, he didn't sense his team bought into the hype.

"We treated it no different than any other game," he said. "We tried to match their emotions because they were a hot team. Plus, we also had 10 days off.

"I was surprised at how tentative we were. UNLV was prepared for us. It wasn't our best, but we played well."

When asked if the eight-minute span in which Princeton made its 20-0 run was the best basketball the team had played, Goodrich paused, then said: "I don't know. I didn't even realize it was a 20-0 run. I wouldn't necessarily say that's the best we've played. But we did do a good job of stopping them and hitting all our shots."

Lewullis said Princeton has itself to blame for its slow start.

"It seemed like our shooters weren't ready to shoot," he said. "I know I wasn't ready to shoot a couple of times. That's something we shouldn't have to worry about. We created problems for ourselves literally."