BLUE THUNDER: Princeton High boys’ basketball player Zahrion Blue, left, dribbles past a defender in a game this winter. Junior forward Blue averaged 19.2 points per game and combined with senior forward Matt Hart (21.9 points a game) to give PHS the top one-two scoring punch in the area. The Little Tigers finished the season with an 8-17 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Although the Princeton High boys’ basketball team finished the season with an 8-17 mark, it wasn’t that far off from having a winning season.

PHS lost five games by seven points or less, including two contests by three points and another by a point.

While Little Tiger head coach Mark Shelley was hoping for a better final record, he liked the way his players hung in there.

“We just lost some really close games in that stretch in late December and early January,” lamented Shelley. “But at the same time, we are proud of how they bounced back.”

Shelley was particularly proud of the team’s 65-64 win over Hamilton on February 26 in its regular season finale.

“It was great; it was not as pretty as it should have been but we were able to get everybody in and played pretty well down the stretch,” said Shelley.

“We were down five or six points with a couple of minutes left and we were able to come back, which we hadn’t been able to do earlier this year. It was a good way to close the regular season. The guys were fired up for the seniors, we knew it was the last time that they were going to play at home. Matt Hart and Michael Dowers performed real well in the clutch for us; it was what you want from your senior leaders.”

Although 16th-seeded PHS fell 94-62 at top-seeded Hunterdon Central in the first round of the Central Jersey Group 4 sectional, Shelley was glad that his seniors got to play in the state tourney.

“For our senior guys, it was the first time that most of them had been in the state playoffs because we had fallen short the last couple of years,” said Shelley.

“It was really important for them to have that opportunity. I was very impressed with Hunterdon Central. I thought that was the best team we had played since I have been here.”

PHS’s one-two punch of junior Zahrion Blue and Hart was very impressive as Blue averaged 19.2 points with Hart scoring 21.9 points a game.

“They are just tremendous; they are two different players,” noted Shelley. “Zahrion is probably the best open court floor player in the county and then Matt is just such a good fundamental player, inside out. It kept us in every game we played, there were only two games where we just got blitzed. To their credit, they still did that even when teams knew to guard them. They are the scouting report.”

Hart, who passed the 1,000-point mark in his career this season, provided both production and leadership for the Little Tigers.

“Matt is what you want in a player,” asserted Shelley. “He works hard, he has gotten so much better, not just offensively but defensively and rebounding. He works hard in practice. He is a leader, he is quiet but he sets a good example. He really worked on parts of his game that weren’t as strong to be a more complete player. You could tell by what the other coaches said about him how much he impressed the teams we played against.”

Another senior stalwart, Michael Dowers, consistently set a good example for his teammates.

“Michael is a great kid from a great family,” added Shelley. “I know he is disappointed in the sense that he wanted to be a more consistent scorer for us but he was a great leader for us in every sense of the word. He is one of those guys that is glue for your program.”

Assessing the senior group as a whole, Shelley lauded its contribution to the program.

“We had four other seniors who played different amounts of minutes at different points,” said Shelley, whose other seniors were Colin Taylor, Patrick Lafontant, Shahieym Brown, and Reykwaun Lozada.

“They all contributed to some extent, practicing for games. It is always tough to say goodbye to those guys.”

Shelley, for his part, is saying goodbye to the team, having decided to step down from the head coaching post after four seasons at the helm.

“I am not going to coach next year, this decision was really made back in November and December,” said Shelley, who has three young children and whose wife is an associate pastor working at a church in Philadelphia.

“It is total, 100 percent because of my family. It is nearly impossible for us do anything together in December as a family with me doing varsity basketball because it is nights and the weekends.”

For Shelley, who coached girls’ varsity basketball for Chapin High in South Carolina before coming to Princeton, getting the chance to guide the Little Tigers has been a fulfilling experience.

“It has been tremendous; when we left South Carolina in 2009, I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to be a varsity coach again,” said Shelley, a history teacher at PHS who plans to continue as the head coach of the Little Tiger boys’ cross country program.

“I had never coached the boys so to have this opportunity work out after a couple of years is really gratifying. Most coaches will say it and it is true, it is the relationships that you develop with these kids that are so valuable. I hope there are kids that I have made an impact with on the court.”