Harvard's Future Docs Beat Yale's Future Lawyers To Nab NCAA Bid

The Ivy League is the only D-1 conference that doesn’t have a conference tournament. But when Yale and Harvard split the season series and each finished with 11-3 conference records, a one-game playoff for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament was in order. Needing a neutral site, the conference settled upon the famed Palestra in Philadelphia.

Harvard led by eight as late as with five minutes remaining in the second half, but Yale stormed back to tie the game with just a minute left. After a contested rebound was judged to have gone off Yale, Harvard had the ball with the shot clock turned off. Steve Moundou-Missi nailed a long jumper to put Harvard ahead, but gave Yale nine seconds to tie. But a last second runner from Javier Duren rimmed out, and the Crimson fans stormed the court. 53-51, Harvard.

It has been a pretty brutal end of the season for Yale. Needing to beat Dartmouth in the final regular season game to claim their first NCAA tournament bid since 1962, Yale gave up a game-winning layup as the clock expired. Two games in a row, two last second-ish losses. Somehow, though, I think the students of Yale will end up alright.

[American Sports Network]