Penn loses to Princeton, 77-70, in Ivy League men’s tournament semifinals

PRINCETON, N.J. — A day before Selection Sunday, Penn sealed the City 6′s fate of being shut out of the NCAA men’s tournament for the first time since 1977 with a 77-70 loss to Princeton in the Ivy League tournament semifinals.

Penn led consistently for the first 14 minutes of play, never by more than six points, until Princeton star Tosan Evbuomwan’s layup tied the game, 22-22. A minute later, Matt Allocco gave the Tigers their first lead of the game, 27-25.

The Quakers edged their way to a 31-30 halftime lead, shooting 41.9% from the field while Princeton shot 44.8% — though just 28.6% from three-point range.

Now came the biggest question that hung over Penn’s weekend: Would it be able to keep this lead after blowing a 17-point second-half advantage over Princeton on this same floor seven days before?

The answer proved again to be no. The top-seeded Tigers mostly controlled the early stages of the second half. Penn rallied from down, 58-52, to lead, 63-60, with seven minutes left and led, 68-67, with 4 minutes, 21 seconds left. But a Caden Pierce layup with 2:46 left put the Tigers up, 69-68, and they kept the lead the rest of the way.

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The lid didn’t close on Penn’s offense this time the way it did last Saturday, as the Quakers shot 46.7% from the floor in the second half. But the big plays came at the other end of the floor.

After making just four of 14 three-point attempts in the first half, Princeton hit five of its first seven attempts in the second. The Tigers also took the ball inside more often, and took advantage by shooting 12-of-16 from the free-throw line in the second half after going 0-for-3 in the first.

Evbuomwan led all scorers with 21 points; he also had six rebounds and four assists. Pierce had 14 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists.

Jordan Dingle led Penn with 19 points and six assists, Clark Slajchert had 17 points, and Nick Spinoso had 15 points and eight rebounds.

Here’s one more stat that definitely will stick in Penn fans’ minds: the Quakers haven’t beaten their most famous rival in men’s basketball since 2018, a streak of nine games. That’s the longest such streak in team history, passing the previous record of eight straight losses from March 2014 through March 2017.

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“It’s a difficult way to end your season, in particular I when I feel the group here, the locker room in general, just did everything they could preparation-wise and competing at a high level. It’s just been one of the more difficult [games] in my career, because I typically feel like you get what you deserve. And not that we didn’t get what we deserved in that sense, but I thought the level of effort that they gave, I couldn’t ask for more. And just give Princeton credit. They finished the job down the stretch.”

— Penn coach Steve Donahue on the end of his team’s season. He also confirmed the team won’t try to play in the CBI or NIT, saying simply: “We’re done.”

“I think that Princeton just made a lot of tough shots. There was a couple of things that we allowed to happen, offensive rebounds that we shouldn’t have, and maybe if we come up with those, the outcome is a little bit different. But it’s a really long game, and a lot of things go into that. I think if we don’t give up some silly fouls toward the end, then it might be a different outcome as well. It’s something that comes with maturity and being poised when the game isn’t going exactly the way you want it to.”

— Penn guard Jordan Dingle on what went wrong in the game’s final minutes.

Yale proved its chops as the No. 1 seed with a thorough win over fourth-place Cornell, reaching its second consecutive Ivy League men’s tournament final and fourth in seven years.

John Poulakidas led all scorers with 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and August Mahoney and Bez Mbeng delivered 18 and 13 points, respectively.

Isaiah Gray and Guy Ragland Jr. led Cornell with 12 points each.

Sunday’s final is set for noon, with TV coverage on ESPN2.

No. 1 seed Princeton rallied from an 11-point third quarter deficit to beat No. 3 Harvard and earn its second straight NCAA Tournament bid.

Harvard led from the middle of the first quarter until the last minute of the fourth, growing its lead to 42-31 with 5:56 to go in the third. The Tigers clawed back steadily, and finally regained the lead on Ellie Mitchell’s layup with 50.8 seconds left.

Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen, the Ivy League player of the year, led all scorers with 21 points. Mitchell had 10 points and 15 rebounds. McKenzie Forbes led Harvard with 16 points, and Harmoni Turner had 11 points and eight rebounds.

The result could improve Penn’s chances of making the WNIT, because Princeton could have gone had it lost this game. Columbia also has an outside chance of making the NCAA field. If it does, it would be the first time since 2016 and just the second time ever that the Ivy League gets two NCAA bids.

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