With 13 seconds left, the Crimson finally made it a one-possession game when Chambers connected on his first field goal of the game, a running three-pointer off the glass to make it 72-69.

Penn successfully inbounded the ball to Cartwright, who was sent to the line and hit both free throws with 11 ticks left.

The Crimson pushed the ball up the court and found Webster for three to make it a two-point game with four seconds to play.

Harvard sent Hicks to the line with 2.4 seconds on the clock, and the rookie went one of two, setting up the Crimson’s unsuccessful final play.

Harvard will get a chance to rebound from its pair of weekend losses when it hosts Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday to close out the regular season.

“We are disappointed,” Amaker said. “We have not played particularly well this weekend; we give all the credit to Princeton and Penn, and they did what they needed to in order to win the basketball game, but we know we can play better and we are confident that once we get home we will.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MartinKessler91.