At halftime on Saturday night, everything seemed right in the Ivy League world.

Princeton—with its league leading 11-1 Ivy record—was making Dartmouth look like a Division III school, boasting a 32-14 advantage. At the same time, Penn—alone in second with a 9-3 record—was having trouble shaking a pesky Harvard squad, only leading 30-26 at the break.

The Tigers had been notorious for playing down to the level of their opponents all season, but now, on the night when they could clinch the Ivy title and an automatic NCAA berth, they seemed to be putting forth the effort worthy of a champion.

Then, in the second half of both games, reality set in and it became clear that the most talented team in the Ivies would not only fall short of the Big Dance, but possibly even the NIT.

“The cutoff for the NIT would be [an RPI of] 150,” said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. “Because of their strength of schedule [and an RPI of 110]...they do have a chance.”

Immediately after intermission, the Quakers started running, nailing two quick fast-break buckets. Penn’s deadly accurate shooters Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley came alive, draining three after three. And just 8:28 into the second half, the Quaker lead had grown to 17, 51-34.

Meanwhile, Dartmouth posted an 16-5 run over the first 7:23 of the second half to pull within seven of Princeton, 37-30.

As Penn began to pull away—extending its lead to 20 with 6:47 remaining—the predominately Quaker crowd at Lavietes listened anxiously for the score updates.

With 7:49 to go, the Tigers pushed their lead out to 14, 47-33. But in classic Princeton fashion, they couldn’t close the door. Big Green guard Leon Pattman pulled his team to within four three times over the final three minutes. The Tigers found a way to pull it out once again, though, nailing 15-of-16 free throw attempts over the final 1:58 to seal the 64-59 victory.

Despite holding an 18-point halftime lead, once again Princeton made it necessary to scrape by with a tight victory.

And that’s been the story of this Ivy season.

Since being swept in the opening weekend on the road at Yale and Brown, Penn has won 10-of-11 in dominating fashion—its victories coming by an average of 18 points. The slimmest margin of victory during that span was eight points.

On the other hand, Princeton has been far less dominating in its 10 wins over the same span. True, the margin of victory has still been an impressive 11.6 points per game. Considering that two of those went into overtime and two were not decided until the final minute, the disparity between the play of the Quakers and the Tigers becomes a lot more distinct.

The fact that Princeton survived several brushes with defeat this season is not to say that the Tigers are unworthy of the Ivy title and the automatic NCAA bid. Princeton’s ability to endure those pressure situations and come out victorious time after time is exactly why they should be the Ivy representative in the Big Dance. The NCAA tournament is a pressure-filled environment, and the fact that the Tigers have learned to thrive under such circumstances will serve them well.

But, in terms of talent, it appears that the Ivies’ best team will be watching March Madness from the “losers bracket” that is the NIT.

“We kind of understood that this could happen,” said Penn coach Fran Dunphy. “We had our chances and we dropped a couple games that we feel we maybe could have won, but so be it...we didn’t get it done like we should have.”

For proof of this, just look at the Penn-Princeton game played in Jadwin early in February. The Quakers scored from everywhere, putting the Tigers away late in the first half and never letting them come close to making it a game down the stretch.

With Princeton coming into the Palestra banged up tomorrow and Penn looking to put the icing on its NIT resume, there’s little reason to think that the rematch will play out much differently.

“It’s our main rival in the league,” Dunphy said. “We play these games on Tuesday nights, when no one else does, and they’re always on television. So, there’s a lot of pride to play for.”

Pride will be the only thing to play for, as the Tigers’ 12-0 record against the rest of the league is more than enough to overcome a possible sweep at the hands of the Quakers.

In the end, they didn’t win pretty and they got some lucky bounces. But the Tigers won, and despite how dominant the Quakers have been down the stretch, they just can’t say the same.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.