Princeton’s star pair outshines Rutgers superstars as Pierce sinks Knights in final seconds

Caden Pierce elevates with first-half dunk as Princeton upsets Rutgers Saturday. (Photo by Princeton Men’s Basketball)

NEWARK, N.J. — Leading up to Saturday’s intrastate matchup between Princeton and Rutgers, most of the pregame conversations centered around the Scarlet Knights’ dynamic freshman duo of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, both of whom are projected to be among the first five players selected in next June’s NBA Draft.

Mitch Henderson bristled at that chatter, hoping to pump up his own two-headed monster of point guard Xaivian Lee and forward Caden Pierce—the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year—instead.

The Tigers’ head coach got his chance to say his piece when it mattered most, as Pierce’s go-ahead basket with 4.5 seconds left gave Princeton an 83-82 lead, which stood up after Harper’s heave at the buzzer cut through the Prudential Center air and Bailey’s putback was a second too late.

“I talked to some of you in the room before the game, and it was all Harper, Bailey, Harper, Bailey,” Henderson recounted. “I wanted to talk about Lee and Pierce, Lee and Pierce. We can talk about them now, they were just terrific. We went 8-for-18 from the line with 14 turnovers, and we won. It’s a gutsy performance.”

Pierce, who recorded 21 points and 14 rebounds, with half of his caroms coming on the offensive glass, just wanted to atone for a prior miscue in crunch time.

“I was just trying to make up for my turnover, honestly,” he said. “Bailey hit a three to put them up one, I looked up and I think there was 13 seconds on the clock. We were in the bonus, so I knew that with so many shooters around me, the lane was going to be pretty open, so I just took my time and tried to get the right shot, and it went in.”

“It’s just these two guys,” Henderson gushed. “The ball was in Cade’s hands, we felt like we had the right matchup. In that moment, I didn’t want to call another timeout. (Pierce) just made a hell of a play.”

Princeton (9-4) and Rutgers (7-5) slugged it out in an afternoon tilt that neither side led by more than six points at any time in the contest. The Tigers overcame a Rutgers transition game that turned 14 Princeton turnovers into 20 points and commanded fast break buckets by a 17-4 margin, outmuscling the Scarlet Knights in the paint, 44-32.

“We knew it was going to be a good test for us, and we needed it,” Pierce reflected. “We’ve had some ups and downs throughout the start of the season, but this was a huge game for us. We needed to come out with the win.”

For Rutgers, the missed opportunity in a non-conference season that also includes a potentially damaging loss at Kennesaw State is one head coach Steve Pikiell lamented in the moment, but insists his roster will move on from in fairly short order.

“We had some opportunities, a few opportunities,” he said. “We just didn’t finish it off today. We just gotta get better. We’ll be back at Jersey Mike’s, which I like, and we gotta get better. We will.”

The improvement was noticeable on the other bench in more ways than just on the scoreboard. Princeton matched Rutgers even as Lee was shut out by Jamichael Davis over the first 14-plus minutes, yet still finished with 21 points and 11 assists as the Canadian continues to improve his draft stock months after he flirted with the chance to go pro. In addition, Blake Peters—a starter last year for the Tigers—has accepted a reserve role with no hesitation, simply doing whatever is asked of him to help the common cause.

“He’s stronger, both physically and mentally,” Henderson said of Lee. “And he’s engaging in the development of others, which really helps. He’s allowing me to coach him, and that’s a gift. That’s a real gift.”

“He’s unbelievable,” the coach added with regard to Peters. “There’s not one ounce of a sideways glance. I’ve brought him into games, I’ve started him, I started him at the start of the second half and he’s like, whatever. It’s unbelievable to have somebody like that on your team. There’s nothing. And it was a game full of—there was a lot of emotion, a lot of talking, and it helps to have to have that kind of ‘I got it’ from a senior. And he came up with that huge rebound at the end to get us one more possession.”

With two more non-conference games left before Ivy League play opens, Princeton has acquitted itself well in the first half of the season, with a win over Rutgers to match a road victory at Saint Joseph’s. Henderson entertained the thought of a possible two-bid Ivy postgame Saturday, but deferred to the main objective of winning the conference tournament—held this year at Brown’s Pizzitola Center—and reaffirmed his full-speed-ahead mindset moving forward.

“We have a track record, and I think that matters,” he said. “We’ll certainly make a great case. We have a great team that’ll help us make a great case, but our objective is to keep winning. That’s the main thing we need to keep doing. We also came up short last year, so that’s our main focus.”

“It’s not just a win. It’s a big win, and there’s no going back. The guys hear me say that a lot, but there’s no going back for us. It’s time for us to understand the importance of what we are and own this, and not allow it to be a flash in the pan. There’s no going back for us.”