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Penn guard Charlie Copp maneuvers by Yale guard Casey Hughes at the Payne Whitney Gym on Friday. Copp scored five points on 2-for-6 shooting.[Anna Grafton/The Daily Pennsylvanian]

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Yale forward Paul Vitelli braced himself behind the three-point arc with less than 10 seconds to play. With the game knotted at 52, a driving Edwin Draughan kicked the ball to an open Vitelli.

As the 6-foot-8 senior released his shot, the whistle blew and a foul was called on Penn freshman Mark Zoller. Vitelli was awarded three free throws with 7.8 seconds remaining.

The Morristown, N.J., native connected on his first two attempts before missing his final attempt. Penn guard Tim Begley grabbed the rebound and pushed it up the left side of the court, feeding freshman Ibby Jaaber inside the three-point line.

Approaching the basket from the baseline, Jaaber let go a floating jumper just outside the key, but his shot bounced off the far side of the rim and the Elis grabbed the rebound, securing a 54-52 victory and handing the Quakers their first Ivy League loss in 24 games.

"Begs made the right play," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Ibby was wide open, he shot it. For a freshman to have that kind of guts and character, that's what you want him to do."

After more than a week off since their last game, the Quakers(7-8, 0-2 Ivy) got off to a slow start, falling behind as much as 12 points in the first half.

However, Penn eventually pulled closer to Yale (6-11, 1-3 Ivy), putting together an 11-0 run on the shoulders of Begley, who scored nine points in less than 90 seconds during the run.

The rest of the half was a back-and-forth of momentum changes. Yale responded to Penn's charge with an 8-0 run to push its lead up to nine, but the Quakers finished the half with a 10-4 run of their own to trim the lead to three at 34-31.

Penn's leading scorer coming into the weekend, senior Jeff Schiffner, did not get his first point until the 3:05 mark of the first half.

The team captain was held to four points on 2-for-5 shooting from the field -- the fewest amount of shots the All-Ivy selection has taken since he attempted four in last year's NCAA Tournament game against Oklahoma State.

Yale coach James Jones gave credit to senior guard Matt Minoff, who guarded Schiffner for the majority of the game.

"Jeff Schiffner smells like Matt Minoff right now because he was so close to him," he said. "He really took it upon himself to play hard defense."

With Yale's defense concentrating on Schiffner, Begley led all players with 21 points on 6-for-9 shooting -- 15 of which were tallied in the first half.

Coming out of halftime, the Red and Blue took their first lead of the game after scoring the first eight points of the stanza.

The lead changed hands four more times before Vitelli was sent to the free-throw line and scored the game's deciding points.

With 2:46 on the clock, Penn held a three-point advantage after Begley hit a three pointer, putting the Quakers on top, 52-49.

After Yale failed to convert on its next possession, Penn had the opportunity to increase its lead, but center Adam Chubb was stopped in the post.

On the ensuing possession, Vitelli knocked down a three to tie the game at 52. Penn senior Charlie Copp then missed a jumper as the clock ran down and Yale secured the rebound for its final offensive possession.

"I think that all good teams make runs and it's how you respond to those runs that will determine how successful you are in the game," Vitelli said.

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