PHILADELPHIA — Xaivian Lee continues to amaze.
The junior point guard has done a lot of special things in just over two years at Princeton, and now you can add a first in the program’s storied history.
In a virtuoso performance that was arguably the best of the Canadian’s career, Lee delivered the first recorded triple-double in Tigers history when he finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 77-69 victory over Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday night at Hagan Arena.
“That’s amazing,” coach Mitch Henderson said. “My goodness.”
Stop for a second and think about all the great players who have worn the orange and black. With apologies to the legend Bill Bradley who played before assists were kept as a statistic, none of them did what Lee did on in front of an energetic Philadelphia crowd of 2,176.
“A really special moment for our program,” Henderson said.
Lee has flirted with triple-double before, often missing out on an assist here or a rebound there. But the triple-double watch was in effect early when you looked down at the box score at he had four rebounds and three assists by the first media timeout.
He got the double-double early in the second half on points and rebounds but was still two assists shy as the clock ticked under three minutes and Princeton was trying to do what it couldn’t do last season in this building and hold off the Hawks.
A pitch back to Philip Byriel for the last of his six made 3s was assist number nine and then a for an and-1 opportunity with 1:16 left for the milestone.
“It feels great,” Lee said. “The stats might look crazy in terms of assists, but that’s because Phil was hitting a lot of shots. I wanted to knock that off because I had come close a couple of times. It was more just playing good basketball together.”
“It’s not the assists and points,” Henderson interjected. “It’s rebounding. It’s amazing. He’s getting 10 regularly.”
Before he dished out the final two dimes, Lee hit the game’s biggest shots.
First he got switched onto the bigger Rasheer Fleming, but when the 6-9 forward backed off ever so slightly he stuck a 3-pointer to put the Tigers up 66-62. After Princeton got a stop, Lee again worked his magic, this time a tough left-handed scoop with Derek Simpson draped all over him.
“He’s just unique. There’s no one else really (like him) in college basketball,” St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange said. “He’s got like the moxie of Devin Booker. There just aren’t many guys who I’ve gone against who are like him.”
High praise from a coach who had spent six years in the NBA as an assistant with the 76ers before taking the job on Hawk Hill in 2019.
“I love Devin Booker’s game, so that’s definitely cool,” Lee said. “They are very well coached and he’s a good coach so that means a lot coming from him. I’ve never got that one before. That’s a good comparison.”
More important than any triple-double, however, is Princeton (7-3) won its third straight game and got the high-quality victory it had craving.
Byriel hit six 3s — three of them off passes from Lee — for his 18 points, Pierce added 15 and Blake Peters scored 12.
“We’ve kind of been going through it recently to try and figure out what we are as a team,” Lee said. “I told the guys I felt like we had been coming. Even this game within it I felt like we had some moments where we were coming undone a little bit, but the morale of the group was very together the entire time. We always knew we were winning the game.”
Lee said he glimpsed at the scoreboard with three minutes left and had flashbacks to last season’s meeting.
Only this time he was going to make sure it ended differently.
“I felt like it was exactly last year and I was like ‘Cade, we can’t lose this. Not twice,’” Lee said. “I felt like we did a good job closing out. We were making shots the entire game and guarding hard.”
Fleming netted a career-high 25 points for the Hawks (5-3), who briefly took the lead in the second half but Lee and the Tigers roared straight back.
“We would be thinking differently about them in terms of your world if they had three more wins,” Lange said. “I wasn’t worried if they were going to be angry or not because they are pretty darn good.”
Especially that kid Lee.
“It’s a sign of being such a complete and very good player,” Henderson said.
The Series
This was just the eighth meeting all-time between the programs and third win for Princeton.
Henderson said this isn’t a home-and-home and the Tigers didn’t get any money to come back to Hagan Arena in consecutive seasons.
“It’s been really hard for us to find games,” Henderson said. “We’re psyched about this one and we get to be in our own beds in about two hours.
As for St. Joe’s making a trip to Jadwin?
“I would love that,” Henderson said. “I’m not sure they’ll pick up the phone.”
Up Next
Princeton stays on the road to face Furman on Saturday at noon. The Tigers rallied to beat the Paladins in a Jadwin thriller last season.
St. Joe’s faces La Salle on Saturday night in the Big 5 Classic championship game at the Wells Fargo Center.
