Harvard exploited that weak perimeter presence Saturday, as Harvey, Gellert and even freshman reserve Jason Norman had repeated success driving through the lane.

The success was particularly surprising coming from Gellert. Usually known for his defense, Gellert was always a step quicker than his defender Saturday, generating easy layups or at least drawing the foul.

He finished with 15 points, his highest output since scoring 17 in Harvard’s exhibition against St. Francis Xavier in November.

In that game, too, Gellert was able to beat the defense off the dribble.

“We probably didn’t do a good job keeping them out of the lane,” Dunphy admitted. “That’s part of their makeup as a team and we let them loose a little bit.”

Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said he was pleased by his team’s backcourt offense.

“Other than Pat, we’ve had three perimeter guys shoot less than 40 percent [from the field],” Sullivan said. “As a group tonight, they shot like 52 percent. Penn was making them make plays off the dribble and they responded to it.”

“As the game got on, their confidence taking the ball to the basket really started to increase,” he added.

And for that, Penn paid the ultimate price.

Fading Down the Stretch

Harvard was helped Saturday night by some critical gaffes and, in general, failed execution by Penn in the closing minutes of overtime.

For one thing, Penn’s Andrew Toole—who started for the Quakers on Friday for the first time since sustaining a stress fracture earlier in the year—failed to settle into any kind of rhythm on the floor.

Despite 13 points, he was subbed in and out of the game all night because of too many senseless fouls, which eventually caught up with him in overtime. Toole’s foul on Gellert at the 2:16 mark was his fifth of the game, leaving Penn without its best free-throw shooter—and one of its best three-point marksmen—for the most crucial stretch of the game.

“There’s no question—we need [Toole] out there,” Dunphy said. “He did some foolish things. He’s working his way through. He tries to do a few too many things.”