Princeton’s Tiger Kings demolish Arizona in an epic NCAA tourney upset

Mitch Henderson’s famous triumph leap during Princeton’s famous upset over UCLA in 1996 has become an iconic moment. The school’s practice facility has a picture of the joyful jump that serves as a continuous reminder of what’s possible.

Henderson’s present players have written their own.

Princeton took its first lead with 2:03 remaining. The Tigers used a late-game surge to achieve their first NCAA tournament victory in 25 years, defeating No. 2 seed Arizona 59-55 and destroying Joe Biden’s bracket.

“It’s a pretty surreal feeling,” said guard Matt Allocco. “Beating a great team like that on this stage is a fairly special experience. But I can’t say I’m shocked either. This squad has been incredibly tough all year. On paper, it appears to be a major shock. But we have faith in one another and believe we make an excellent combination. When we’re at our peak, I believe we can beat anyone in the nation.”

The Tigers (22-9) scored the final nine points of the game, keeping the Pac-12 tournament champions scoreless for the final 4:43. Arizona tallied 55 points when the buzzer sounded, a season-low.

The shocking outcome shattered punters’ brackets across the country, none more so than Biden, who predicted Arizona to win the tournament early Thursday.

Tosan Evbuomwan led Princeton to its first tournament win since beating UNLV in 1998 when Henderson was a Tiger.

Henderson was also a member of the 1996 squad that defeated defending champion UCLA in the school’s final tournament, led by Pete Carril, who died in August. This triumph occurred in Sacramento, where Carril worked as an NBA assistant after retiring as Tigers coach.

“He’d be extremely proud of the group,” Henderson said. “He wouldn’t want any attention drawn to anything besides what these guys accomplished. They were playing to win. We knew we needed to maintain the game at a low possession count.”

Princeton will face seventh-seeded Missouri in the South Region’s second round. Utah State was defeated by the Tigers 76-65.

Azuolas Tubelis led the Wildcats (28-7) with 21 points. They haven’t won a tournament game in successive years since 2014-15.

A No. 15 seed won a first-round contest for the third year in a row and the 11th time overall. Arizona is the only school to have been on the wrong end of two of those upsets, falling to Steve Nash and Santa Clara in 1993.

Only one No. 16 seed has ever defeated a No. 1 seed: the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in 2018.

“If you want to be a great player or a great coach, we all have to learn from this,” said coach Tommy Lloyd. “We have to go back and figure out what happened and understand the value of being up 10 to 12 points with 10 minutes to go and putting the hammer down on people and not letting them get back in the game.”

The Wildcats appeared to be in command of this game when Oumar Ballo’s goal put them up 10 with eight minutes remaining.

But the Tigers answered with seven consecutive points, capped by a second-chance three-pointer from Blake Peters that put the Tigers up 51-48 with about six minutes remaining.

They finished the game on a 9-0 run, just as they did in their most famous tournament victory against UCLA in 1996.

Keeshawn Kellman began the run with a putback dunk, and Langborg followed with a jumper and a layup to give the Tigers the lead.

The Wildcats then missed all five attempts down the stretch, allowing Princeton to seal the victory at the foul line. Langborg also blocked Courtney Ramey’s shot with 50 seconds remaining, keeping the Tigers’ one-point advantage.

“When I blocked it, the entire crowd erupted,” he said. “My teammates were all locked in with each other, and it was kind of that moment where you’re like, ‘Wow, we can really do this,'” she says. We’re going to do it, and nothing will stop us.'”

Ramey, who made the game-winning shot in the Pac-12 tournament, missed a contested three-pointer with 14 seconds remaining, which would have tied the game. Kerr Kriisa also missed from long-range after an offensive recovery, prompting Princeton to celebrate early.