Princeton concludes season with road loss at Yale, but bright future on tap

By Andrew Hefner (@Ahef_NJ)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For the final time in the 2025-26 season, Princeton took the court with one of the youngest teams in all of college basketball. With no seniors rostered and not a single player slated to depart, this season’s disappointing result is not the end-all, be-all in any way for the Tigers.

Although the very strong top seed in the Ivy League, Yale, won in dominating fashion with Princeton in town, 78-53, the focal point for Mitch Henderson and his team will be on the future. 

Princeton rolled into New Haven as one of the few teams to actually beat the Bulldogs this season, alongside Harvard and Cornell, and was carrying in a load of confidence after an outstanding 82-61 win at home over Dartmouth the weekend prior. Even though the Tigers had already been eliminated from Ivy Madness contention last Friday, the focus remained set on experimentation for the seasons ahead. 

“They got so much better over the course of the season,” said Henderson postgame, “I don't know if that game is reflective of where we are, that’s a really good Yale team.”

Yale entered Saturday 22-5, and as the top seed in Ivy Madness, it got the chance to celebrate its seniors with a classic pregame ceremony at home. For Princeton, though, no seniors meant no senior day last week, and no threat of any departures that could rock the program. Nick Townsend has become one of those types of players for Yale that will leave a hole behind, as the senior captain and All-Ivy first team selection played his final minutes at home today as a Bulldog. Townsend burst onto the scene last season and has become one of the conference’s more prolific three-point shooters and scorers, and added another 17 points and seven rebounds to his stacked ledger today. As expected, he earned a huge hand from the packed home crowd on his way off the court for the final time in the second half. 

Princeton played extremely boldly in the first half, mixing and matching subs as the Tigers worked to find their way back into the game. Sophomore Peyton Seals and the freshman duo of Sebastian Whitfield and Jacob Hammond have become favorites of Henderson off the bench in a time when two of his starting players were out. 

“Oh my gosh, yeah,” Henderson said when asked about learning to adapt. “Like when we put Landon (Clark) as the post when we lost Dalen (Davis) for eight, nine games, we were constantly having to adjust. Young guys everywhere, very, very difficult at times. But I think the key for us was they just never stopped working.”

Princeton did eventually work its way back into a competitive game, as a 12-0 run to wind down the clock in the first brought the Tigers within a score, 32-30, at the buzzer. Malik Abdullahi led the scoring in the first half with an even 10 points for the visiting side, while Dalen Davis added seven, and freshman Landon Clark added eight. Clark was almost immediately thrust into the spotlight at the start of the season as Princeton worked to fill the almost impossible void left by Xaivian Lee and Caden Pierce, but the work seemed to have paid off, as Clark has worked his way into becoming one of the most key pieces of Princeton’s team heading into next season. 

“He’s terrific around the rim,” Henderson said of Clark, who scored 11 points Saturday. “He makes other people better. He can score around the rim. He’s been doing great.”

Clark played the most minutes of any freshman at Princeton, and worked his way into much more dangerous positions as the season ran on, not being scared to take big shots or guard the best scorer, which greatly contributed to the Tigers’ success.

“I think that’s just playing with a bunch of guys who have done it before and learning from them,” said Clark. “I think just overall, I learned a lot. I learned how hard it is to win. Obviously, we saw tonight that you’ve got to play a lot harder, you’ve got to be a lot tougher. I learned a lot about a lot freshman year, but I hope to carry some of the good things into next year.” 

Clark’s story at Princeton is just getting started, and alongside the freshman from Maine will be the same group that he has grown with and learned from this season. 

“When we started in August to where we are now, we’ve got a tight-knit group, no seniors,” he said. “We hope that we can bring everybody back and add a couple of freshmen and continue to strengthen our bond.” 

With sophomores Jack Stanton and CJ Happy missing the end of each of their seasons with injuries, a strong sophomore class alongside the freshmen will be moving up into larger roles next season as the team gets ready to reset throughout the spring and summer months. 

“I really feel good about how they’re all connecting with one another,” said Henderson regarding the underclassmen. “And they didn’t stop working. I just think players are made in the spring and the summer. So that’s when, if they are committed to that, they can get a lot better.”

Although Princeton worked its way back in the first half, some poor shooting quickly let the game get out of hand in the second as Townsend, alongside fellow senior Casey Simmons, began to rack up buckets before finally being subbed out. Yale’s season will continue against the hosts of Ivy Madness, fourth-seed Cornell, next Saturday.

For Princeton, the future remains bright, and the work done during the season now behind them is only going to contribute to the success in the future. For the first time in his career, and a rarity in college basketball now, Henderson will get to work with a team for an extended period of time, a luxury that will be taken advantage. 

“We were identifying right away who could help us,” he said. “And in the spring and in the summer, if you have everybody coming back, generally you already know some things. There are some things that are set. Then, we had some injuries, and we had to redefine that the whole season. So, yeah, I mean, we’re not going to the transfer portal, and there’s nobody coming in. We’ve made that very clear, and that’s how it’s going to be.” 

Clark spoke highly of the relationships and favorite moments this season and held high hopes for the future of Princeton basketball led by himself alongside a batch of players who now have the experience to compete at the highest level.

“Every day, showing up, practicing, going to dinner, lunch with the guys, just every little moment,” he reflected. “Hopefully, a lot of wins next year.”

There is no telling what the future holds for the Tigers, but next season, Jackson Hicke and Dalen Davis, two of the team’s leading scorers, will be seniors, and the team will no longer be one of the youngest in the nation. The time to win is quickly approaching, and while the summer months will be key to continue to develop this season into one that can return to Princeton’s former ways, the real power will come through the bonds forged this season and the ones they can carry into the next. 

“I think beginning means a lot of different things,” said Henderson. “It’s a good question to ask because it means it’s the beginning of the spring. And then hopefully it’s a group coming back together. I just think of the landscape, the way it is. You return every single guy on the team, I just don’t see that happening anywhere else in the country.”