HIGHER POWER: TJ’s career day sends Penn back to NCAA Tournament

By Ray Curren (@rjcurren.bsky.social)

ITHACA, N.Y. — The thought heading into Sunday’s Ivy League final was that Penn would have to play a perfect game to upset top-seeded and two-time defending champion Yale.

The third-seeded Quakers didn’t need to be perfect. They just needed TJ Power.

The Duke and Virginia transfer hit two three-pointers in the final seven seconds of regulation, and finished with 44 points and 14 rebounds as Penn returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018 after stunning Yale, 88-84, in overtime at Newman Arena, its second extra session win in as many days.

Even with Power’s heroics that made it a back-and-forth game down the stretch, it looked like Yale (24-6) would hang on when Trevor Mullin hit two free throws with 12.5 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a 73-69 lead. But Power came right down the court and drilled a contested three over Nick Townsend with 6.9 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 73-72.

Mullin was quickly fouled and again hit two free throws, but Power hit a three over Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Casey Simmons with one second left to dramatically tie it. Mullin missed what would have been an all-time highlight when his 70-foot heave at the buzzer hit the back of the rim.

“I thought they were going to foul, so I just pushed it down the floor,” Power said. “I know Casey is a great shot blocker, so I put a little extra arc on it and it felt good out of my hand.”

Said Yale coach James Jones: “We discussed in each huddle at the end whether to foul or not and we decided as a group not to, but I’ll take the blame for that as the head coach. That’s on me.”

The Quakers (18-11) largely controlled the overtime against the shaken Bulldogs, showing zone (they did a little late in the game) to get Yale out of rhythm. Still, Isaac Celiscar’s three made it 82-81 with 1:30 left, but Penn finished 16-for-16 from the free throw line. Mullin had a chance to tie it from three in the waning seconds, but it was long and the improbable celebration for a team picked seventh in the Ivy preseason poll and without its captain (injured senior Ethan Roberts) could begin.

“We mixed in a little bit of zone there just to give them a different look, and I think that helped, but it was rebounding as well,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “We had to show grit, and we certainly did down the stretch in general on defense.”

Power actually started cold (as he was Saturday) and Yale got out to a 25-16 lead with 8:30 left in the first half. But Power was just getting started, and the Quakers actually had a 41-36 lead before Simmons’ three made it 41-39 at the intermission.

Neither team could grab more than a six-point lead in the second half, but that’s what Yale had with 3:15 left when Ivy Player of the Year Townsend asserted himself and scored four straight points.

However, that was when McCaffery and Penn switched to a zone, a bold move against the third-best three-point shooting team in the country, but it clearly threw Yale off and Penn crawled back into it, with Power scoring four points before the three-pointers to even the game.

Power (who also drew 10 fouls in the game) was the star, but there were others, including Lucas Lueth, who was a presence in the paint all weekend. Cam Thrower, filling in the starting lineup for Roberts, had 19 points, including 4-for-6 from three-point range after a solid game on Saturday. Augie Gerhart, Michael Zanoni, and Jay Jones (also James Jones’ nephew) all had big buckets in Sunday’s game.

Yale’s season is not over, as the Bulldogs will accept a bid in the NIT, albeit the watered-down 2026 version. They will lose Townsend, Simmons, and Devon Arlington, but should return enough to be among the Ivy League favorites once again. Mullin had 22 points, while Simmons, Celiscar, and Townsend had 17 each for the Bulldogs.

“It’s just hard. This was going to be three years in a row for us,” Jones said. “You’re fighting the same teams all the time. Everybody has seen everything you’re going to do. And everybody wants you to lose as the champs. We tried to throw a bunch of different people at (Power), you have to tip your hat to him,” Jones said. “We didn’t do a great job of stopping him, but he had a great game.”

Meanwhile, Penn will not be the No. 12 seed Yale was projected to be, but just three years ago, Princeton (the last team to beat Yale in the Ivy Tournament) went all the way to the Sweet Sixteen as a No. 15 seed.

Penn is now the fifth team McCaffery (in his first year back in Philadelphia) has taken to the NCAA Tournament after Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, Siena (where he won games in back-to-back years), and then Iowa.

“They’re all incredible, but I think this year’s run was a little different,” McCaffery said. “Not only coming back to my alma mater, but coming home as well. I’m blessed to have this group of guys and the way they love one another and that’s essentially the reason why we’re here. It’s easy to make excuses when you’re not playing much, but those guys were key, they kept us going, that’s what culture is.”