No one has ever pretended that the Princeton-Penn road trip is an easy one. Not even for the Ivy League leader.
Yale fell victim to a noisy and boisterous Palestra and too much AJ Brodeur and Eddie Scott, as the Quakers upset the Elis, 69-61, Saturday night.
In the process, hot-shooting Azar Swain broke the Yale (18-6, 6-2 Ivy) season record for threes, held by Ed Petersen for almost 30 years. Swain hit his 73rd three in the second half off an assist from August Mahoney.
Brodeur also set a record. His 705th career field goal broke a 67-year school record of 704 set by Ernie Beck. Brodeur’s record-breaker came on a three-pointer with 2:49 left that broke a 58-58 tie, and Penn (13-8, 5-3) never trailed again.
Beck remains Penn’s all-time leading scorer, but Brodeur needs to score just 104 more points to pass him.
Penn got off to a hot start on the heels of a disappointing loss to Brown and led the cold-shooting Elis 13-3 out of the gate.
Yale coach James Jones made numerous early substitutions, using an eight-man rotation, and Yale cut it to 15-12. Yale took a 29-27 lead into the locker room by virtue of a Paul Atkinson jumper in the lane virtually at the buzzer.
The teams jockeyed back and forth in the second half. Yale grabbed a 58-53 lead, but Penn came back and two Scott free throws tied the game at 58-58 with 3:25 to play. Penn completed an 11-0 run to take the lead at 64-58, capped off by a Scott trey.
A Jordan Bruner triple cut the deficit to three with 35 seconds left, but Penn took care of business from at the charity stripe for the upset win.
Brodeur ended the game with 19 points and eight rebounds. Scott had 18 points. Atkinson posted a double-double for the Elis with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Penn committed a season-low six turnovers.
“We settled for jump shots and we had some opportunities at the basket that we just missed,” Jones said.
Yale shot just 36.1% from the field, while Penn fared better at 42.4%.
Yale began Saturday night alone in first place atop the Ivy standings, but the loss knocks them back into a tie with Princeton, which the Bulldogs stomped Friday night. Penn is now a game back of both in the Ivy standings, tied with Brown and Harvard.