CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Yale men's basketball team will play for a spot in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
Azar Swain scored 25 points as the Bulldogs edged Penn 67-61 in a thrilling semifinal game of the Ivy League Tournament at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion.
Yale, the No. 2 seed, meets No. 1 Princeton on Sunday at noon. The winner earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Bulldogs (18-11) and Quakers went toe-to-toe for 40 minutes before an enthusiastic crowd at Lavietes. Yale had the lead for nearly 34 minutes of the game but couldn't shake a pesky Penn squad until the final minutes.
"It was another really good college basketball game," said
James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We fought very hard, and I'm happy we were up to the challenge. Our guys made a lot of good plays from top to bottom."
The Bulldogs led 32-29 at halftime and quickly extended it to nine, 44-35, when
Matthue Cotton drilled a three-pointer five minutes into the second half.
Penn, though, rallied and took its only lead of the second half, 56-55, on a Lucas Monroe free throw with 7 minutes remaining.
Yale answered with a 7-1 run, capped by a Swain jumper to go ahead 57-52. The Quakers got back within one with less than two minutes left, but
Bez Mbeng hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game, a jumper from the elbow with 1:14 remaining.
The Bulldogs got defensive stops on Penn's next two possessions, forced a turnover and made their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Swain was 9-of-15 from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point range to lead the Bulldogs.
"Azar was extremely efficient," Jones said. "He sets the tone for us. When he's special, he's special."
Swain had plenty of support.
Matt Knowling added 10 points,
Jalen Gabbidon contributed nine points and seven rebounds, Mbeng and Cotton each had eight points,
EJ Jarvis scored six points and had five rebounds,
Isaiah Kelly grabbed six rebounds and
August Mahoney hit a clutch free throw in the final minute to help seal the win.
Jordan Dingle scored 28 points to lead the Quakers, who were the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Dingle was 12-of-25 from the field.
The championship game on Sunday figures to be another thriller. Yale and Princeton split two meetings during the regular season. The Bulldogs beat the Tigers 80-74 at Jadwin Gym on Jan. 29, and Princeton won the game in New Haven 81-75 less than a month later.
The Tigers beat No. 4 Cornell 77-73 in the first semifinal.
