Few sporting events live up to their billing. Yale-Harvard did and more Saturday night, as the Bulldogs edged Harvard, 76-75, in overtime in a game at Lavietes Pavilion which offered more theatrics than most Broadway plays.
Let’s start with Yale leading scorer and captain senior forward Nick Townsend leaving the game with 18:54 remaining after getting hit in the face. Townsend left the floor with the Yale trainer and never returned to the bench.
Harvard led the entire first half and went into the locker room with a 34-30 lead, as Yale committed an uncharacteristic nine turnovers. Team season leading scorers Townsend and Harvard sophomore guard Robert Hinton each were held to four points. Harvard led by as many as 11 in the half (32-21).
Sophomore guard Riley Fox gave Yale its first lead at 50-49 on a jumper off a flare screen.
A four-point play by Harvard junior forward Thomas Batties II gave the Crimson a 61-58 advantage. Batties led both teams in scoring with 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting.
A Batties trey put the Crimson up 66-64, and two free throws by Yale sophomore forward Isaac Celiscar tied it at 66.
Yale junior guard Trevor Mullin missed at the buzzer after a Yale stop to send the game into the extra session.
Yale sophomore guard Jordan Brathwaite hit two key triples to give Yale a 74-72 overtime lead.
Harvard sophomore guard Tey Barbour responded with a three to put Harvard up 75-74.
After a timeout, Yale worked the ball around for a last shot, and the officials called Barbour for a foul on Celiscar with .05 remaining. He drained both and Harvard could not get a shot off at the buzzer.
“It was great to be able to get a win on the road like this without your captain and leading scorer,” Yale coach James Jones said. “I told coach Amaker that it was just a great college basketball game, and it was.”
Celiscar led Yale with 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Senior forward casey Simmons added 16 points.
Yale has more depth than Harvard, which could be a factor in the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs had 27 bench points to only two for the Crimson.
Yale, the leading three-point shooting team in the country by field-goal percentage, was 44% from long range. Harvard, the leading free-throw shooting team in the country by percentage, was 88% from the charity stripe.
Yale now leads the Ivy at 8-2 and Harvard sits a game back at 7-3.
The two games between these two arch-rivals were decided by three points, with each winning on the other’s floor.
Yale hosts Penn and Harvard is at Cornell, both at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Yale did not beat Harvard. The refs beat Harvard.