At last, with a resounding 77-65 victory over Yale on Friday night, the Harvard women’s basketball team clinched the Ivy League championship and earned a trip to the NCAA tournament. The Crimson boasted the nation’s first automatic bid this year.

“We’ve battled for first place for three of the last four years and hit the dust the last weekend, so to speak,” said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “To do it this early feels really good.”

With 8.6 seconds left, down by 12 points, Yale called a timeout during which Harvard took a bit of last-minute advice prior to the celebration.

“I said, ‘Let’s be sportsmanlike. Let’s be classy. We are champions. We don’t celebrate until the buzzer,’” Delaney-Smith said.

And when the buzzer sounded, the players swarmed the floor in a massive team hug. Hordes of photographers and young fans surrounded the team as they accepted the Ivy plate and cut down the net.

The last time Harvard went to the tournament was the 1997-98 season, in which the Crimson won the Ivy title and Allison Feaster ’98 led the nation in scoring. Harvard’s team made history that year by beating Stanford to become the first No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1 seed.

On Saturday, Harvard defeated Brown, 76-63, to give the seniors a win in their final game at Lavietes and earn the team its 12th straight victory. There were no nostalgic feelings after the game because the team was focused on the games to come, the next being at Dartmouth tomorrow.

“Nothing has sunk in,” Monti said. “This is not a closing. We’ve still another two weeks from it all being done. So right now, it’s all good feelings. There’s nothing sad here tonight.”

The NCAA selection show will be broadcast live on ESPN next Sunday at 5 p.m. at which time 33 at-large teams and 31 automatic qualifiers will discover their tournament seedings and pairings. The first round games of will be played at 16 host sites throughout the nation on March 15 and 16.

Harvard 76, Brown 63

Though the Bears threatened in the first half, Harvard came through with a strong second half to pull out a comfortable victory.

Peljto scored a game-high 21 points and contributed nine rebounds. Nunamaker tallied two career-highs with 13 points and 8 rebounds on the night, and Barnard earned 10 points in her homecourt farewell.

Harvard began senior night with an appropriate line-up—seniors Jenn Monti, Sharon Nunamaker, Lindsay Ryba, and co-captains Laura Barnard and Katie Gates. One day before, they assured they would be the seventh senior class in a row to graduate with at least one ring.

“I’ve always said that this senior class provided a lot of motivation, determination, poise even though our statistical leaders are younger,” Delaney-Smith said. “The senior class’ contributions have been incredible and invaluable—all five of them.”

The Bears played without sophomore Nyema Mitchell, who leads the Ivies and ranks in the top 20 in the nation with 61 blocks in 25 games. Mitchell sustained an ankle injury in the first minute of play against Dartmouth on Friday night.