One of college basketball’s proudest programs is back in the NCAA tournament, and thrilling fashion, too.
Princeton beat Harvard Saturday, 63-62, in a tiebreaker for the Ivy league’s automatic berth, the school’s 24th overall. It was more than a little tense, too.
The tiebreaker – held at Yale, about 130 miles from each school – was attended by raucous fans who seen their teams split the season series, thus the tiebreaker. (The Ivy does not have a postgame tournament.)
And what a tiebreaker.
The Tigers (25-6) took a 61-60 lead with 37 seconds remaining, but Harvard’s Brandyn Curry gave the Crimson the lead with 11 seconds remaining when he hit a wide-open layup.
So Princeton’s Douglas Davis responded with this.
Students rushed the court and Davis was promptly rushed by delighted fans. “I wish I kept my balance and just ran off. I didn’t think about getting buried,” he told Jeff Borzello afterward.
It sealed Princeton’s first bid since 2004. The Crimson (23-6) will have to wait to see if they’ll receive at an-large bid to end their 65-year tourney drought.
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