Sacramento Stunner! Princeton men’s basketball shocks Arizona in March Madness upset

The Princeton men’s basketball team delivered some March Magic 27 years after its last NCAA Tournament win.

Channeling the spirit of the late Pete Carril, in a city the Hall of Fame coach used to call home, the Tigers did it again. Fifteenth-seeded Princeton leaned on its star, Evbuomwan, and some late defensive stops for a stunning, 59-55 victory over second-seeded Arizona on Thursday afternoon at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

“This group did this,” said coach Mitch Henderson, who was part of the 1996 team that famously upset UCLA. “That was a really long time ago, but this group did something special for its university, for the fans, for the former players and for one another. They just came together and did it.”

This is the the third straight year a No. 15 seed has beaten a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Last season Saint Peter’s, another New Jersey school, went all the way to the Elite Eight.

“It’s a pretty surreal feeling,” Allocco said. “To beat a great team like that on this stage is a pretty special feeling, but I can’t say I’m surprised. This team has been so good all year, so gritty. On paper, it’s going to look like a big upset, but we believe in each other and think we are a really good team. When we’re at our best, I think we can beat anybody in the country.”

CHRIS KNIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL

Princeton forward Tosan Evbuomwan (20) shoots past Arizona guard Pelle Larsson (3) during the second half of a first-round college basketball game in the men’s NCAA Tournament in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, March 16, 2023. Princeton won 59-55. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas)

Tosan Evbuomwan finished with 15 points, Ryan Langborg scored the go-ahead basket with two minutes remaining and the Tigers (22-8) tallied the game’s final nine points after trailing from the opening tip. Caden Pierce sank two clutch free throws with 21.7 seconds to go for a three-point lead, and Princeton defended two attempts from Arizona to tie the game in the final seconds.

When Evbuomwan bounced in a free throw to ice the upset, he became the 37th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.

“We have full confidence in the coaching staff’s gameplan,” Evbuomwan said. “Low turnovers, you have to take care of the ball against a team like that and limit their transition buckets, play physical inside with the bigs, exactly what coach said was our plan. We turned the ball over a couple more times, but other aspects of our defense meant we were able to get it done.”

Azoulis Tubelis scored 22 points and Oumar Ballo had 13 for Arizona (28-6), which led by 12 midway through the second half.