TRENTON -- Jackson Hicke doesn't like moral victories.
Even though Princeton was down three starters by the beginning of the second half, the junior forward thought he should have made the deep 3-point look he had to win at the buzzer.
When the ball clanged off the back of the rim and fell harmlessly to the floor, the Tigers were left with a 60-58 setback against St. Joseph's in the Jersey Jam at CURE Insurance Arena.
"I'm a competitor and I hate losing," said Hicke, who finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. "We all hate losing, but, at the end of the day, we're a younger team now and we've lost a lot of guys. We're used to winning a lot of these games in non-conference, but now we got to grow in non-conference. That has to be our main goal. Wins will come with that."
Right now, however, the losses are piling up with injured bodies.
Princeton (3-7) suffered a fourth consecutive defeat for the first time since it began the 2019-20 season with an 0-5 record. All four of the setbacks have come this week, which began in Florida with three games as part of the Terry's Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational.
The last three losses are by a combined 11 points.
In addition to leading scorer Dalen Davis missing his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle, center CJ Happy, who had a career best 22 points against Vermont on Wednesday, was out with an illness and forward Malik Abdullahi didn't play in the second half due to a right toe injury.
When it rains ... it pours.
"We're banged up. The timing of the games has been rough," coach Mitch Henderson said. "We're right there, we're knocking on the door, but we're finding lots of different ways to shoot ourselves in the foot. These games are going to help us in the long run."
On Sunday, those mishaps were 13 turnovers and a 3-for-7 from the line -- the Tigers are shooting 67.5% on free throws this season -- in a game that was lost by two.
Some of that can be attributed to having so many young players on the floor in unfamiliar places.
"We had maybe seven or eight (turnovers) going into the last five minutes of the game and finished with 13," Henderson said. "You can't expect to win."
After Princeton got out to an early nine-point lead and St. Joe's quickly reeled it in, neither team led by more than six the rest of the way. It was, like the previous two meetings, nip-and-tuck in the second half and wasn't decided until the Hawks (4-3) got key baskets from their backcourt of Trenton’s own Deuce Jones II (17 points, 9 rebounds) and Derek Simpson (13 points) and Hicke’s long 3-point try was off the mark.
On the final play, St. Joe’s did a good job blowing up the initial action and forcing Hicke, who averaged 19 points per game in the three contests in Florida and has morphed into Princeton’s No. 1 option without Davis, out toward mid-court.
"I had a pretty good look, honestly, a pretty make-able look," said Hicke, who is still sporting the black eye he suffered on Monday against Bradley. "It was a little deep, but with one second on the clock we are going to take that every day of the week. I could have made that. It's just executing, and at the end of the day it's (about) taking care of the ball. We have an inexperienced team so if we don't have that many turnovers down the stretch then we don't need that shot."
The most relieved person in the building might have been St. Joe’s coach Steve Donahue. The former Penn boss snapped a personal 13-game losing streak against Henderson and beat his now-former Ivy League rival for just the third time in 21 tries.
"Would you blame me if I was thinking it was going in because it's gone in quite a few times," Donahue said. "I have great respect for the (Princeton) program. We've all had injured guys. I've had numerous guys hurt when I've gone against them and they were shorthanded today. Sometimes you have somebody step up and that's what this time of you is for, too, finding out who can really help you in league."
Wise words from a veteran coach because both of these teams will be judged on what they do in league play.
That's something Princeton has to keep in perspective as it tries to get healthy and takes some lumps.
"I think it's really tough," Hicke said. "I'm struggling with it."
But, again, perspective.
"You got to take it with a grain of salt," Hicke said. "We were missing Dalen for the whole thing; Happy was out today; Malik was out. A lot of guys are getting experience and that will help us down the road. At the end of the day, it's about being the best prepared we can be for Ivy. We want to win every game we play, but I think the experience these guys are getting; we'll be an even deeper team when it comes to Ivy (play)."