But the Crimson could not hold on, falling, 65-61. To maintain a decent chance at the Ivy title, Harvard had to beat Penn the next night.

It took a double-overtime game, but Harvard did just that. A block from sophomore Kyle Casey as time expired gave the Crimson a thrilling 83-82 win to stay alive.

After the weekend split, the rest of the year looked like a countdown to the Harvard-Princeton rematch in the final regular-season contest at Lavietes. But the other Ivies made that road a little more turbulent for both the Crimson and the Tigers.

Brown played spoiler. The Bears handed Princeton their first league loss of the year and would have done the same to Harvard had the Crimson not put together one of the biggest second-half comebacks in NCAA history.

But just as it looked like Harvard’s season finale would be a winner-take-all for the Ivy League title, the Crimson could not hold on. A 70-69 loss to Yale on the road meant that even with a win against the Tigers in the final weekend of the year, Princeton could still force a one-game playoff.

Harvard won its last two games to take a share of the crown, but with a win over Penn in the Ivy League’s last regular-season game, the Tigers forced an extra game. And with 2.8 seconds left, Douglas Davis handled the inbound, pump-faked, and hit a mid-range jumper to send Princeton to the Dance.

The Crimson had a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament but was instead a six-seed in the NIT. Harvard lost to Oklahoma State on the road, 71-54, in the first-ever matchup between the two schools to bring an end to the best season in program history.

“Number one, when coach [Tommy] Amaker was recruiting all of us—why we all came here—was that we wanted to make history,” freshman Matt Brown said. “We got the school and the community really involved, and we appreciate all the support.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.