It was desperate, off-balance and as carefully guarded as any defensive strategy could have prescribed.

And yet somehow, Princeton guard Kyle Wente's last-second heave-launched frantically from behind the three-point arc with the Tigers trailing by one and time set to expire-swished through the net, giving the Tigers an astonishing 69-67 win over the Crimson.

Just seconds before, Harvard captain Dan Clemente-whose 29-point effort the previous night led the Crimson its most lopsided victory over Penn in 44 years-had calmly sunk a ten-foot jumper to put his team ahead. But during the timeout by Princeton that followed, the concern shifted from whether Clemente could make the go-ahead basket to whether he had left too much time on the clock in doing so.

As it turned out, he had. With 7.4 seconds remaining, Tigers point guard Ahmed El-Nokali took the inbounds pass, dribbled towards half-court, and worked the ball to Wente, who was swarmed by two Harvard defenders. Junior guard Andrew Gellert-the league's top defender-played the ball in an attempt at a swipe while sophomore guard Pat Harvey played the body, his arms raised in hopes of disrupting the shot.

The defensive scheme was executed perfectly. But Wente stepped to his side and hurled an awkward left-handed shot that sailed through the hoop and gave Princeton a miraculous, come-from-behind victory.

If only the shot had rattled out. Harvard holds on for the win, completes it first weekend sweep of the Killer P's since 1987 and then-who knows? Maybe Harvard prances all the way to the Ivy League title and it's the Crimson, instead of the Tigers, taking on North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But that's not how it played out.