Trailing by as many as 17 with 5:11 to go in the first period, Harvard went on a 16-7 run to close the half, pulling to within eight at the break. Zoller, who played just 19 minutes off the bench, answered by scoring Penn’s first seven points of the second half, igniting a stretch that put the Quakers up 60-41 with 13:24 to play.

The Crimson made one final push—pulling to within seven with 8:32 left on a tip-in from Stehle—but a 12-2 Penn run over the next six plus minutes ended any notion of a Harvard comeback and started up the celebrations from the 5,859 fans at the Palestra.

Forward Steve Danley added 14 points and seven rebounds for Penn, while Begley had 11. Danley, Whitehurst and Zoller combined to shoot 16-of-21 from the floor. Senior point guard David Giovacchini led Harvard with 12 points.

Harvard’s twin losses in the season’s final series prevented the team from finishing with its first above .500 Ivy mark since 1996-97. The Crimson ends the year with a 7-7 record in league play for the fifth time in the past seven seasons.

“It’s definitely a tough way to go out,” Cusworth said. “I really wish we could have capped off the season a little better, especially for the four seniors who have worked so hard.”

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.