Following Curry’s miss, Penn held onto the ball with the lead and 36 seconds left.

The Crimson would utilize its aggressive defense to force one more turnover, this time courtesy of Howlett, who threw the ball out of bounds trying to find his point guard.

With his team still trailing by one, Lin took the ball again. But this time, Lin found Casey open on the left elbow. Casey faked a shot and then looked for Curry in the corner, but before he could let the pass go, Dan Monckton was whistled for the foul on Casey.

With 11.6 on the clock, Casey coolly sank both shots from the charity stripe, setting up the final defensive stop.

“I just went to the line, did my routine, and knocked them down,” Casey said.

Harvard, which led by as many as nine in the first half, saw its lead dwindle in the minutes before and after the break. Behind 5-of-7 three-point shooting from sophomore Rob Belcore, the Quakers were able to turn a five-point deficit into a one-point lead just over six minutes into the second frame.

“[Belcore] making shots gave us a chance to win the game,” said Penn interim coach Jerome Allen. “Overall offensively we didn’t do a good job of executing and to Rob’s credit, he made some tough shots for us.”

The Penn lead would grow to as many as seven with less than five minutes remaining before Curry and Casey combined for their team’s final 11 points, leading the Crimson on an 11-3 run to claim the victory.

“It was definitely a gutsy win,” Casey said.

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.