NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team fell in heartbreaking fashion on Friday night at Yale, allowing the Bulldogs to score a layup with 0.3 seconds left in regulation which gave the hosts an 80-79 win at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
 
Penn entered the weekend as the worst free-throw shooting team in the conference by percentage, and it bit them on Friday. The Quakers were up by five with just 46 seconds to play and had their leading scorer, sophomore Ryan Betley, at the foul line shooting a 1-and-1. From that time until the end of the game, the Quakers not only went 6-of-10 from the charity stripe but two of those misses came on the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities, denying Penn two more chances at points.
 
It cost the Quakers. Still up by one point with just 3.8 seconds left, they tried to inbound the ball under the basket they were defending. The ball was tipped out of bounds and the referees awarded it to Yale. After a review, the call stood, and from in front of their bench the Bulldogs inbounded across the court to Miye Oni, who drove into the lane and found an open Paul Atkinson who laid it in for the win.
 
With the loss, Penn (21-8, 11-2) falls into a first-place tie with Harvard in the Ivy League standings. It was a dramatic night for the league leaders; as the Quakers were falling to Yale, the Crimson needed two overtimes to knock off Cornell in Cambridge. So the title is still on the line for both teams when they tip off tomorrow night, Penn at Brown at 6 p.m. and Harvard at home with Columbia at 7 p.m.
 
Notes
*Penn has now lost six of its last seven at Yale.
 
*Penn lost a game in which it trailed for a grand total of 54 seconds.
 
*Penn fell to 16-3 when leading at the half this season; the Quakers led 35-34 at the break.
 
*Penn hit 10 three-point shots, the third time in the last four games (and the 11th time this season) the Quakers have hit double figures in the category.
 
*Penn lost despite dishing off 19 assists (on 28 baskets) while committing just seven turnovers, one shy of its season low.
 
*Penn shot 12-of-19 from the foul line in the second half, including two times when the Quakers missed the front ends of 1-and-1.
 
*Penn was outrebounded on the night, 41-27, and allowed Yale to get 14 offensive rebounds. The Bulldogs scored 15 second-chance points to Penn's two.
 
*Senior Darnell Foreman had a stellar performance for the Quakers, as he matched his season/career high with 21 points and also dished out seven assists (without a turnover) to tie his season best.
 
*It was Foreman's second 20-point game this season and his 16th double-figure outing. He also had five rebounds.
 
*Senior Caleb Wood also scored 21 points on Friday, his third game with 20 or more points this season and his 14th in double digits (fifth in a row).
 
*Wood hit five three-pointers, one shy of his season high and two shy of his career best.
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur scored 16 points on an 8-of-9 shooting night from the field. He has now scored in double figures in two-straight games, seven of the last eight, and 18 overall this season.
 
*Sophomore Devon Goodman came off the bench for another double-figure scoring night, as he had 10 points, four rebounds and two assists.
 
*Junior Antonio Woods set a season/career high with three steals.
                                                                                                                
How It Happened
Penn blew out to a double-digit lead, using a 10-0 run to go up 19-8. The lead was still 12, at 33-21, when the Bulldogs began attacking the rim. That paid off, as Yale got the foul line continuously and made enough of them to draw within a point at 33-32. Darnell Foreman and Paul Atkinson traded baskets in the final minute, and the Quakers took a 35-34 lead to the locker room.
 
The team traded points through the first several minutes of the second half, with Yale finally getting a few leads in the game including a 51-49 advantage with 11:11 left. Penn responded with eight of the game's next nine points to take a 57-52 lead, Yale got within a single possession several times after that, but a Caleb Wood three-pointer and then a pair of Foreman free throws made it a 71-64 Quakers lead with 2:38 to play.
 
Yale got within three points, but Brodeur hit a layup to make it 73-68 as the clock went inside a minute. Things were looking good for Penn after the Bulldogs missed three chances at the basket and Goodman finally rebounded for the Quakers. He got the ball to Betley, who was fouled. However, he missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Brodeur compounded the miss with a rebound on the shot, but Yale missed their foul shot and Foreman was fouled as soon as he got the board. He too missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and this time Yale made Penn pay as Alex Copeland got the rim to make it 73-70.
 
After a timeout, Penn inbounded to Wood who was immediately fouled. He missed the first, made the second to make it a two-possession game, but then Antonio Woods was called for a foul and Oni (24 points, 12 rebounds) made both free throws with 19 seconds left. Wood again got the ball on the inbounds, was fouled, and this time he made both to make it 76-72.
 
Yale got the ball down the court and Trey Phills missed badly on a three-point shot, but a Penn defender was called for a foul on the shot to give Phills three free throws. He made two of them. The Quakers then got the ball to Sam Jones on the ensuing inbounds, and he made one of his two foul shots after the Bulldogs fouled him. Oni and Foreman traded foul shots after that, and then Oni hit two more—the second one accidentally, judging from his body language—after Penn fouled him rather than let Yale get off a three-point shot to tie. That set the stage for the final seconds.
 
Up Next
Penn closes out the 2017-18 regular season on Saturday night at Brown, tipping off with the Bears at 6 p.m.
 

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