The Quakers paid the price for Toole’s overaggressiveness when his replacement at the point, David Klatsky, missed two key free throws late in overtime. They were Penn’s first misses from the line all night.
At 50 percent, Klatsky is one of Penn’s worst free throw shooters, and Harvey admitted after the game that Harvard felt safest going after him when it needed to foul.
Though Klatsky managed to grab his own rebound off the second miss, he immediately coughed the ball up to Harvard forward Graham Beatty.
As large as Klatsky’s misses would loom, an even bigger Penn blunder might have been a fumbled defensive rebound by Quaker forward Ugonna Onyekwe earlier in the extra session.
With Penn ahead by one and 3:16 left on the clock, Gellert missed the second of two free throws. The rebound was Onyekwe’s for the taking, but it slipped through his hands and landed out of bounds, giving the ball back to Harvard.
The Crimson took full advantage of the second-chance possession, as Harvey drilled a three to give the Crimson a lead it would never relinquish.
“I thought we had a couple opportunities to close it out,” Dunphy said. “We just did some foolish things. But I give Harvard a great deal of credit.”
Odds and ends
Before Harvey stole the show against Penn, it was junior sixth man Brady Merchant who stoked the Crimson in the first half. The Harvard wing guard struck soon after entering the game, nailing a three that put Harvard up 10-7. He finished the first half as Harvard’s leading scorer with nine points . . .
Even with the start of exams looming, Harvard had its first two sellouts of the year this weekend. Of everyone who packed the gym this weekend, none were louder than four players from last year’s Crimson team. Sophomore Kam Walton, senior Bryan Parker, Alex Lowder ’01 and Dan Clemente ’01 were all in attendance Saturday. It was Clemente, of course, who carried Harvard to its surprise win over Penn last year, scoring 29 points as the Crimson rolled to a upset that snapped the Quakers’ 25-game conference winning streak . . .
With UCLA’s upset over Kansas Saturday, Harvard can now make its claim for the top spot in the new Associated Press top-25 poll. For those to whom the link is not readily apparent, an explanation: earlier this season, UCLA lost to USC. Since then, the Trojans have lost to Fresno State, who lost to Wake Forest, who lost to Syracuse, who lost to Georgia Tech. Penn beat the Yellow Jackets, and, at least until the two teams square off again in Philadelphia, Harvard has Penn’s number.
Let the debate over the nation’s new No. 1 team begin.
—Crimson staff writers Daniel E. Fernandez and Elijah M. Alper contributed to the reporting of this article.