NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The stretch run came early this year, but Harvard still faded down it.

Challenged by a front-loaded schedule that featured its two toughest road trips of the season back-to-back, the Harvard men’s basketball team could not withstand the pressure. After getting swept at the hands of the Killer P’s last weekend, the Crimson dropped games at both Brown and Yale this weekend, effectively ending its chance at a first-ever Ivy League title less than halfway through the conference schedule.

The late-game poise Harvard showed in its clutch, early-season road wins at Fairfield and Rider was hard to find for the second straight week. As happened at Princeton on Jan. 31, the Crimson (10-9, 2-4 Ivy) owned second-half leads in both of this weekend’s games, only to surrender crushing runs unbecoming of Harvard’s veteran lineup.

The schedule gets easier for the Crimson from here on out. Harvard hosts Ivy doormats Cornell and Columbia this coming weekend as part of four consecutive home games.

But that may not matter, as the Crimson—by far the most experienced Harvard squad of the last four years—appears also to be the one eliminated from postseason play the quickest.

“There are probably no teams in the country that have to play five of their first six league games on the road [like Harvard and travel partner Dartmouth],” said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. “We can now regroup and go home for the next six or seven games.”

Yale 73, Harvard 68

Senior Elliott Prasse-Freeman impressed by scoring 20 first-half points, but the entire Harvard team couldn’t muster much more than that in the second frame, suffering its fifth consecutive defeat to Yale, 73-68, Saturday evening.

Trailing by five after 20 minutes, the Bulldogs used a 10-0 run midway through the second half to get back in the game, then let super sophomore guard Edwin Draughan and a deep bench hold off the Crimson in the final five minutes. Yale (10-9, 3-2) outscored Harvard 33-22 in the second half.

“I thought it was a terrific ballgame,” Sullivan said. “The Yale kids really got a lift from their fans, certainly when they came back to tie the game.”

Only the first half was “terrific” for Harvard at John J. Lee Amphitheater—and even then, almost exclusively for Prasse-Freeman.

The Harvard point guard had the best offensive half of his career, scoring 20 on 7-of-8 shooting.

But what really wowed spectators was Prasse-Freeman’s performance from long distance. He connected on 6-of-7 three-point attempts, several from NBA range, to almost single-handedly give the Crimson the lead.

“It was incredible,” said captain Brady Merchant. “We needed it.”

Prasse-Freeman hit his first trey midway through the half, putting Harvard ahead 23-22. Minutes later, he pulled up two feet behind the top of the key and drained another one despite being knocked down on the shot. He closed out the first half by scoring 12 of the Crimson’s final 13 points, all on three-pointers.