Crimson take regular-season finale from Bulldogs

BOSTON — While there is no such thing as a meaningless game any time bitter rivals Yale and Harvard meet up in any sporting event, there was certainly a feeling of Saturday night’s men’s basketball game being little more than a 40-minute tuneup for the upcoming Ivy league Tournament for the recently crowned regularseason champions.

Visiting Yale had secured the program’s fourth outright Ivy League regular season title regardless of the outcome and there are times when it looked like the Bulldogs were already focusing on the upcoming tournament games.

Harvard, which sat leading scorer Noah Kirkwood, posted the 83-69 victory at Lavietes Pavilion.

It was fourth straight year that Harvard swept the Bulldogs in the regular season. It should be noted that a season ago, the Bulldogs won the game that mattered the most as a 97-85 win in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament gave the Bulldogs a spot in the NCAA tournament. The teams could meet in the league championship again but with one notable difference as Harvard will host the tournament after Yale served as tournament host in 2019.

The game didn’t have any seeding implications for the Bulldogs as Yale’s win over Dartmouth and Harvard falling to Brown on Friday night gave the Bulldogs their fourth outright championship and eighth Ivy League regularseason title. The Bulldogs will face Penn on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the first semifinal followed by the Harvard/Princeton game.

Paul Atkinson had 23 points to lead Yale (23-7, 11-3 in the Ivy League) and Azar Swain had 13 points with his three 3-pointers extending his own Yale single-season record.

Justin Bassey had 19 points and Rio Haskett added 14 for the Crimson.

Harvard (21-7, 10-3) led 37-32 at halftime and pushed the advantage to double digits after back to back baskets by Chris Lewis early in the second half. The Crimson used an 8-0 run capped by a 3on-0 fast break and 360 dunk by Chris Ledlum to push the lead to 17 midway through the second half.

Harvard played without lKirkwood which is understandable since the Crimson are locked into playing Princeton in the semifinals of the Ivy League tournament regardless of Saturday’s result. Harvard is rather used to the next man up mentality. Bryce Aiken, a unanimous AllIvy selection a season ago, has been limited to just seven games due to injury and 2018 Ivy League Player of the Year Seth Towns hasn’t played at all.

Yale also won outright championships in 1956-57, 1961-62 and 2015-16 seasons. The Bulldogs went 38 years between Ivy titles and then had a run of 12 more seasons without a title. Things have certainly changed for the better for the Bulldogs as this is the fourth time Yale has earned at least a share of the regular season title in the last six seasons.