Sophomore Kenyatta Smith (center) and the Harvard men's basketball team celebrates after topping Cornell, 65-56, at Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday night. With the win, the Crimson clinched its third straight Ivy League title.

After a regular season of breakouts and busts, comebacks and collapses, and departure and development, the Harvard men’s basketball team has finished on top.

With a 65-56 win over Cornell Saturday night at Lavietes Pavilion, the Crimson clinched its third consecutive Ivy title, and with some help from Brown—which beat Princeton, 80-67—Harvard is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.

The Crimson (19-9, 11-3 Ivy) entered the night needing a win to clinch a share of the championship, and a Tigers loss in one of its two final games—Saturday at Brown or Tuesday at Penn—to win the title outright.

It got the help it needed on Saturday, when the Bears stunningly upset Princeton in Providence.

“Just how we drew it up,” co-captain Christian Webster joked. “I’m just thankful. This is crazy.”

Of course, before Harvard could worry about the rest of the league, it had to take care of business on its home court against the Big Red (13-18, 5-9).

And following a season of dramatic finishes, it was only fitting that the final contest came down to the wire.

After trailing by 14 with nine minutes to go in the second half, Cornell cut the Harvard lead to five with 1:35 remaining. But Miles Asajo-Adjei missed a jumper that would have made it a one-possession game, and sophomore Wesley Saunders, junior co-captain Laurent Rivard, and freshman Siyani Chambers knocked down six of eight free throws in the final moments to ice the championship and begin the celebration as the student section stormed the court.

“What a victory of our kids, and what a weekend for our program,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “I can’t say enough how proud I am of our guys.”

The Crimson’s third championship was its most unexpected. After a season began with the departures of co-captains Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, the Crimson withstood its toughest non-conference schedule yet and maintained a lead through league play until last weekend, when a sweep by Princeton and Penn put Harvard a game back of the Tigers.

“We were obviously very dejected and down after that two-loss weekend,” Amaker said. “[But] we said that we have it play this out and see how it shakes out.”

It played out well for the Crimson, which took care of business at home this weekend, while the Tigers were shockingly swept to send the Crimson to the dance.

“We never gave up, and anything can happen in this league,” Rivard said.

On Saturday, Harvard went into the half up eight and stretched its lead to 13 when Chambers hit a long three from the top of the key. Errick Peck answered back with a layup for a Cornell, but Rivard—who led all scorers with 17 points—answered back with a left-wing long ball to push the advantage to 14.

From there, Cornell began chipping away and got within seven with 4:28 remaining on an Asafo-Adjai layup and then within five on two Peck free throws.