The Quakers downed Dartmouth yesterday afternoon 71-58 in a battle of the team’s two remaining undefeateds to claim sole possession of first place while Harvard sits in a tie for sixth with Princeton after its win over the Tigers.

The Crimson has two games remaining against cellar-dweller Yale and third-place Brown, and one against Penn, the Big Green, Cornell, Princeton and Columbia.

If Harvard is to have any shot of earning the Ancient Eight’s automatic NCAA tournament berth, the Crimson must win out to finish the season at 11-3. But even then Harvard needs help.

Under the most likely scenario, Dartmouth would need to beat Penn on the road, giving both squads two losses apiece—after their hypothetical losses to the Crimson—but each would still need to lose another conference game for Harvard to have a shot at the tournament, which just weeks ago seemed all but certain.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.