Maldunas Layup With 0.5 Seconds Left Wins It For Big Green

HANOVER, N.H. – Yale's NCAA Tournament aspirations will have to wait another week.

Gabas Maldunas' layup with five-tenths-of-a-second left off an inbounds play lifted Dartmouth to a stunning 59-58 victory over the Bulldogs at Leede Arena.

The loss, coupled with Harvard's win over Brown, means Yale shares the Ivy League championship with the Crimson. The two teams will meet next Saturday at the Palestra in Philadelphia with the winner earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The start time will be announced by the league office.

Yale (22-9, 11-3 Ivy) led the entire second half until Miles Wright's three-pointer tied the score at 57 with 13 seconds left.

Javier Duren's free throw with 2.5 seconds remaining gave the Bulldogs the lead. Dartmouth then tried a length-of-the court in-bounds pass that was deflected out of bounds by Justin Sears with 1.9 seconds left. On the ensuing in-bounds play, John Golden made a nice pass under the basket to Maldunas, who converted the layup and was fouled. Maldunas intentionally missed the free throw, and a desperation heave by Sears from three-quarters court missed.

The Bulldogs led for 36 minutes, 35 seconds of the game.

"We have to get this out of our heads and get ready for Harvard," said Duren, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Freshman Makai Mason paced the Bulldogs with a career-high 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field. Sears added 14 points and nine rebounds, and Armani Cotton contributed six points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Tommy Carpenter paced Dartmouth (14-14, 7-7 Ivy) with 13 points, and Wright scored 12.

The win makes the Big Green eligible for a post-season tournament berth.

The challenge for the Bulldogs will be putting this loss behind them.

"We had a great opportunity that we didn't finish off," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "Now we have another chance [next Saturday]."

Yale will be playing in an Ivy League playoff for the third time in school history. In 1963, the Bulldogs fell to Princeton 65-53 after the two teams finished league play 11-3. In 2002, Yale was involved in a three-way playoff after finishing 11-3. The Bulldogs beat Princeton 76-60 at the Palestra before falling to Penn 77-58 at Lafayette.

NOTES: Yale outrebounded Dartmouth 36-30… The Bulldogs shot 48 percent from the field, but were just 9-of-17 from the foul line… Chris Dudley '87, who enjoyed a long NBA career, watched his alma mater play in person for the second straight night.

Report filed by Tim Bennett (timothy.bennett@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity