IN PHOTOS: Yale men's basketball beats Penn in Ivy Madness semifinal Opening the postseason at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion, No. 2 Yale took down No. 3 Penn, 67-61, on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs now play No. 1 Princeton in Sunday's Ivy League Tournament championship for a bid to March Madness. Photos by Tim Tai. Words by William McCormack.
BOSTON — No. 2 Yale (18–11, 11–3 Ivy) faced No. 3 Penn (12–16, 9–5) Saturday afternoon in the final semifinal matchup of Ivy Madness, the conference's four-team postseason tournament. 25 points from Yale guard Azar Swain '22 and strong Yale defense, especially late in the second half, secured the Bulldogs a 67–61 semifinal win over the Quakers.
The game was Yale's first postseason matchup since March 2019, when the Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA Tournament after defeating Harvard to claim the Ivy Madness crown that spring. Canceled a few days before it was set to occur in 2020 due to concerns about COVID-19, the Ancient Eight's postseason tournament had not taken place since 2019 before the action kicked off in Boston this weekend. The No. 3 Yale women's basketball team fell to No. 2 Columbia, 67–38, in a Friday night semifinal.
After Penn hosted Ivy Madness in its inaugural 2017 year and again in 2018, Yale held the event at John J. Lee Amphitheater in 2019. Harvard is hosting this year's tournament at its Lavietes Pavilion. Attendance was listed as 1,250 for Yale's semifinal, about on par with home attendance for Yale's regular-season Ivy League games, but the postseason stakes created a unique buzz among spectators at the tournament.
The Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the field and five-of-eight from deep in the first and led 32–29 going into the second. They had split the regular-season series with Penn, losing on the road in Philadelphia before containing Dingle to 10 points and winning with a 32-point performance from Gabbidon when the two teams played in New Haven.
Penn quieted Gabbidon in the first half, forcing him to turn the ball over four times. But the Yale captain settled in after halftime, scoring all nine of his points in the second and grabbing seven rebounds.
During a postgame press conference, Gabbidon referenced a quote from New England Patriots football coach Bill Belichick: “Stats are for losers.”
“Whatever it took to win the game is what mattered,” Gabbidon added.
Penn later closed the gap, tying the game at 55 late in the second half and taking a one-point lead, 56–55, with 6:38 to play. With the score practically knotted, Swain said Yale tried to "be patient with the moment" and not get carried away by the atmosphere.
The Elis limited the Quakers to six points and only two field goals over the final six and a half minutes of play.
Yale overcame 28 points from the Ivy League's leading scorer, Penn guard Jordan Dingle, who accounted for 15 of his side's 32 second-half points.
On offense, Swain hit two free throws, sank a three-pointer and converted an extremely difficult fadeaway jumper on the baseline after driving to his right around Penn defender George Smith to make it 62–57 Yale with three minutes to go. First-year point guard Bez Mbeng '25 came up with a clutch floater down the stretch, and Gabbidon knocked down two key free throws with 28 seconds to play.
With the six-point win, Yale advances to the Ivy Madness championship game against No. 1 Princeton, which defeated No. 4 Cornell earlier Saturday. Both teams are competing for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. ESPN2 will broadcast the game Sunday at noon.
