Creswell — On Tuesday, Princeton earned the long trip to a second round boys’ basketball playoff game at Creswell with an efficient offense and solid defensive rebounding.

Those same two factors showed up again Thursday night but not in the Bulldogs’ favor.

Creswell held on for a 59-54 win in the 1-A playoffs after leading by 19 in the second half. Princeton finishes its season with an 18-9 record.

The Tigers (18-2), who will host Preqiumans in a sectional final tonight (Friday), grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and benefited from 20 Princeton turnovers.

“We got down 19 points in the second half and it just takes so much to get out of a hole like that,” said Princeton coach Jeff Davis. “We did the same thing against North Johnston.”

The Bulldogs fell in a 20-point hole to rival North Johnston last Thursday in the semifinals of the Carolina 1-A Conference tournament and couldn’t recover.

In Tuesday night’s win over Weldon, Princeton had just 13 turnovers and gave up 11 offensive rebounds.

Still, Creswell, the Tideland Conference champion, was slow to take advantage. It took nearly six minutes for the Tigers to take a noticeable lead. Princeton fell behind 9-0 before an old-fashioned three-point play by Ryan Daughtry got the Bulldogs on the board.

Princeton had its chances to go to halftime with a manageable deficit but struggled to string enough possessions together to cut into the lead. The Tigers led 25-11 after a Daughtry layup in the final minute of the first half helped Princeton take a little of the momentum back.

But Creswell’s Gary Blount drove in and scooped in a layup to push the lead to 16 points at the break.

“We looked very out of it early,” Davis said. “This is a great home court advantage and they’re a really good team. And when you give up the offensive rebounds and turnovers we did, it’s hard to overcome that against good teams.”

Creswell is one of the few schools in the state smaller than Princeton. The gym where Thursday night’s game was played is similar in size to most middle school gyms, featuring just three rows of bleachers on each side.

The thing was Princeton almost did overcome it, after allowing the lead to grow to 19 points with 10 minutes to play in the game. Princeton shot 20 percent (4-for-20) from the field in the first half. Michael Radford hit two 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the first half to help spark the comeback. Princeton was within 10 at the quarter break.

Benton Myers, Josh Barefoot and Ryan Daughtry found the mark from 3-point land early in the fourth quarter and suddenly, Princeton was within three (49-46) after a Will Gainey free throw with 3:22 to play.

The Bulldogs went cold again, however. Creswell pushed the lead back to eight points before Princeton would score again, on another Daughtry 3 with 1:09 to play.

A pair of late offensive rebounds gave the Tigers enough chances to add to its lead, which came in handy when Barefoot found his range from 3 again with 20.7 ticks left, getting Princeton within 56-54.

After a foul to stop the clock in an attempt to get the ball back, Creswell’s lone senior - forward Victon Blount - kept a missed shot alive that ended up back in the hands of shooter Shivon Spear, who went to the line again.

“When the other team gets more possessions, even if they’re not great shooters, they’ll eventually score,” Davis said.

Gainey, Radford and Daughtry all fouled out in the closing minutes.

The Tigers’ Ralphon Owens led all scorers with 24 points, while Spear added 10.

Daughtry and Barefoot had 17 each in their final games for Princeton. Chris Hinton, the Bulldogs fifth senior starter (with Barefoot, Radford, Gainey and Daughtry), contributed six points.

“Eighteen-and-nine is our best season in a long time,” Davis said. “We probably could have won three or four more but, then again, we probably stole a few wins as well. I just hate to see my seniors go out like this, with some of them fouling out.”