PRINCETON — Caden Pierce sat at the postgame press conference with scratches up and down his arm and a look on his face that resembled a March battler rather than a November opener. It felt that way, too, for the 1,690 inside Jadwin Gymnasium as Princeton had to dig deep in order to overcome a 16-point second half deficit and escape with an 81-80 victory over Iona. “I think we kind of expected to walk out there and do our thing and we got punched in the face,” Pierce said. “I think we needed that. Ultimately, we’re going to look back at this game and it’s going to be really good for us.” There was more noise around Old Nassau than usual during the build up to Monday night’s opener. National outlets have written pieces about the Tigers. They’ve been labeled one of the mid-major teams to watch. They received a pair of votes in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. All rightfully so. Pierce, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, and Xaivian Lee, the hero of Monday night’s comeback with 17 of his 27 points in the second half, are one of the most dynamic duos in all of college basketball. Yet as Pierce said at the team’s media day: “None of it matters, it we don’t win games.” For a team that believes it can build an NCAA Tournament resume, the season so nearly got dealt a significant blow on opening night. It really started when Deven Austin, expected to be a key reserve in his return from a knee injury, left the team for personal reasons last week (coach Mitch Henderson said he doesn’t expect him to return this season). Then the ball tipped off and it felt as though Princeton was a step slower than a physical opponent who picked up full court and had a point to prove. “They put up 49 points in the first half,” Pierce said. “We just got to take some pride. I didn’t think they were doing anything special. They were beating us one-on-one and out-toughing us, so I looked at the guys and said let’s toughen up.” That was the vocal leadership the Tigers were looking for. “I thought the first half kind of exposed us a little bit,” Pierce said. “The last two years we were lucky to have leaders like Zach (Martini) and Mush (Matt Allocco). They made it easy on us. When times got tough we always had those consistent voices. Now that those voices are gone it’s up to me, Xaivian and Blake (Peters) to step in a fill that role. I think in the first half we didn’t do a good job of that, but it’s a young season and we’re figuring things out as well.” Yet if there’s one thing you know about Princeton it’s never out of a game in its home building. Especially not when Lee has the ball in his hands. The junior point guard shook off a slow start and a bout with cramps to score all 17 of his second-half points in the final 12 minutes. He put a defender on ice and ripped a step back 3 to bring Princeton within one at the 2:34 mark. He hung in the air for a tough two over the 6-8, 240-pound Clarence Rupert for the lead with 58.4 second left. He capped off the flurry with the winning free throws in the final seconds after he was fouled attacking the rim. Pierce finished with his ho-hum 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. “Good players make good coaches,” Henderson said. “However, what I’ve asked of them is that they would be the most coachable guys on the team. If they are that, then we can be really good. Everyone is going to look at them all the time. Not just the opponents, but inwardly our team.” Lee agreed. “I feel like our team can be really good this year because coach coaches us just as hard or harder than anyone else on the team,” he said. “Coming back with more attention, for us to be coachable is what is going to help us lead by example.” And lesson learned.