Time Expires On Princeton

Southeast Region

Princeton coach Pete Carril’s magical run through the Southeast Regional proved to be a short one.

Erick Dampier scored 20 points as Mississippi State beat sentimental favorite Princeton 63-41 Saturday. The loss sent Carril into retirement after 30 years as a college coach and ended Princeton’s surprising run in the Southeast Regional, which began Thursday with an upset over defending national champion UCLA.

The Bulldogs play Connecticut Friday in Lexington, Ky.

“I think the whole team is really disappointed in how we played,” said Sydney Johnson, who scored Princeton’s first basket, but finished with only four points. “I’m somewhat ashamed of our performance and this being the last game for Coach Carril, it’s really hard.

“I think this loss is going to stay in a lot of guys’ minds over this summer. We’ll remember this as much as UCLA or the Penn victory.”

As he has for the past three decades, the rumpled Carril suffered on the sideline, sometimes pleading, often yelling, always grimacing.

As the game ended, Carril took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. The MSU players shook the coach’s hand as he left the court for the last time.

Carril announced March 9, after Princeton beat Penn for the Ivy League title, that he’d retire at the end of the season. At the postgame news conference, Carril said he didn’t make a big deal of this being his last game, calling such talk “sentimental hogwash.”

“I didn’t think about it at all. I’m not even thinking about it now,” he said. “When I made my decision, I knew very clearly it was the right thing.”

Princeton scored just three times in the first 10 minutes as MSU built a 16-7 lead. Any time Princeton seemed ready to make a run, Dampier, Dontae Jones and Darryl Wilson were there to stop it with a dunk or a 3-pointer. The Bulldogs led 31-20 at the half.

Princeton got within eight with 17:34 left to play on a 3-pointer and layup from Steve Goodrich, but the Tigers could come no closer the rest of the game.

Mississippi St. 63, Princeton 41

Princeton (22-7) - Doyal 3-5 0-1 7, Lewullis 0-5 0-0 0, Goodrich 5-13 2-2 14, Johnson 2-6 0-0 4, Henderson 4-10 1-1 11, Earl 0-2 0-0 0, Del-Toro 0-1 0-0 0, Mastaglio 1-1 0-0 3, Gregory 0-0 0-0 0, Rosenfeld 0-1 0-0 0, Hart 0-1 0-0 0, Hite 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 16-46 3-4 41.

Mississippi State (24-7) - Walters 0-1 0-0 0, Jones 5-10 0-0 11, Dampier 10-12 0-2 20, D.Wilson 4-8 2-2 13, Bullard 3-6 2-4 8, Hughes 0-0 2-2 2, Edmonson 1-1 2-2 5, Hyche 1-1 0-0 2, B.Wilson 0-1 0-0 0, Washington 0-0 0-0 0, Walton 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 24-40 10-14 63.

Halftime-MSU 31, Princeton 20. 3-Point goals-Princeton 6-27 (Goodrich 2-5, Henderson 2-6, Mastaglio 1-1, Doyal 1-3, DelToro 0-1, Hart 0-1, Earl 0-2, Lewullis 0-4, Johnson 0-4), MSU 5-14 (D.Wilson 3-7, Edmonson 1-1, Jones 1-2, B.Wilson 0-1, Bullard 0-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Princeton 15 (Johnson 5), MSU 34 (Dampier, Jones 7). Assists-Princeton 11 (Henderson, Goodrich 3), MSU 15 (Bullard 9). Total fouls-Princeton 15, MSU 8. A-32,293.

UConn 95, E. Michigan 81

Doron Sheffer matched his career high with 27 points and All-American Ray Allen had 25 points and 10 rebounds as the top-seeded Huskies overcame a 13-point deficit to beat the Eagles.

“Quite frankly I’m not sure we’ve experienced anything like that in my 10 years at Connecticut,” Huskies coach Jim Calhoun said of Eastern’s 72-percent shooting midway through the first half.

“We were 13 (down) and sliding. They were making every shot and things were pumping,” Calhoun added. “We were getting burned, and we said the only way we can get this back is by making some defensive stops. Once we did that, we started to come back.”

With Allen and Sheffer going against the smaller EMU guards, the Huskies closed to 48-47 at halftime, hit five of their first six shots in the second half and took the lead for good on a three-point play by Rudy Johnson.

“We really jumped on them early. I was really disappointed we let them back in the game,” EMU coach Ben Braun said. “We had a chance to pull away and create some space a couple of times. Key offensive rebounds by UConn really hurt. They had a couple of transition baskets, and we really didn’t get back.”

Brian Tolbert scored 36 for EMU.

The victory gave the Huskies (32-2) a school record for victories in a season.

Eastern Michigan (25-6) - Dial 4-8 0-0 10, Zajac 1-3 0-0 2, Wilson 5-10 8-8 18, Tolbert 14-24 1-5 36, Boykins 5-15 0-0 10, Head 1-3 0-0 2, Beeten 0-0 0-0 0, Berkovitch 0-1 0-0 0, Mills 1-1 1-2 3, Pennisi 0-0 0-0 0, Eibeler 0-0 0-0 0, Ezugwu 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-66 10-15 81.

Connecticut (32-2) - King 5-7 3-3 13, Johnson 6-9 1-1 13, Knight 2-4 3-4 7, Sheffer 10-14 5-7 27, Allen 8-20 4-7 25, Jones 1-5 2-2 4, Tnyatkin 0-0 0-0 0, Chapman 0-0 0-0 0, Klaiber 0-0 0-0 0, Carson 0-0 1-2 1, Hayward 2-4 1-2 5, Kane 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-63 20-28 95.

Halftime-Eastern Michigan 48, Connecticut 47. 3-Point goals- E. Michigan 9-23 (Tolbert 7-13, Dial 2-5, Head 0-1, Berkovitch 0-1, Boykins 0-3), UConn 7-14 (Allen 5-9, Sheffer 2-4, Jones 0-1). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-E. Michigan 27 (Wilson 7), UConn 45 (Allen 10). Assists-E. Michigan 11 (Tolbert 5), UConn 19 (Allen 7). Total fouls-E. Michigan 26, UConn 11. A-NA.

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