Put it on the board

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So that's the season. Penn squeaks out a win after letting an inspired Yale team get back in it, while Princeton finally gets blown out - something I've been expecting for some time.

For the first 30 minutes tonight, Penn looked like the dominant team it has been in this league. Yale picked up some momentum on what I thought was a terrible call against Ibrahim Jaaber midway through the second half. Yale's Dominick Martin intercepted a high-low pass from Steve Danley and fed it to Eric Flato who was already on a fast break at the center circle. He had about two steps on Jaaber, and tripped over his own two feet.

However, the officials said Jaaber grabbed Flato, and they called an intentional foul. Flato made both foul shots and Yale scored on the following possession to cut Penn's lead to single digits for the first time in the second half. It was all down hill from there.

Penn didn't score in the final six minutes with the exception of Danley's two foul shots. But it was some great efforts from Jaaber, Mark Zoller and Brian Grandieri to snag a few key rebounds that kept Yale from coming all the way back. Zoller's board with 13 seconds to go was probably the game-saver.

Grandieri's ill-advised inbounds pass with 1.7 seconds to play almost gave it back. Fran Dunphy said Grandieri made "an interesting decision," in trying a long lob to Eric Osmundson. It ended up in the hands of Martin and Yale had a shot to tie. Everyone says they were without a timeout, but I swear there was one left. It should have been called. That last two seconds looked far too much like two years ago here when Yale won 54-52.

Yale's crowd -- which mostly filled in around halftime -- certainly gave the team a boost. It got legitimately loud in there. It was nice to exhale as Flato's last-second jumper arced far short of the basket as the buzzer sounded.

Now it's on to the Big Dance. But now is no time to be complacent. Penn needs to win its last two for the NCAA selection committee. One loss could drop the Quakers to a 15 seed.

Stat of the game: Penn's shooting percentage - 51.9 first half, 37.5 second half. Yale's shooting percentage - 32.1 first half, 56 second half.

Star of the game: I'm tempted to pick Zoller, especially for his two big three-pointers early on which really stuck it to Yale. But I'm going with Martin. When he was on the floor, his defense really made Penn force the issue. The six minutes he wasn't on the floor, Penn dominated. He was the difference maker.