PHILADELPHIA — While his teammates’ arms were outstretched, extending any encouragement they could in a moment where it couldn’t have been more important, Bryce Aiken was still miming his last move.

Dribble, dribble, up with the right hand.

Aiken had worked his way from one side of the court to the other trying to unleash that move.

No matter where he moved, how many crossovers he made, he had three Yale jerseys shadowing him.

It had been that way for most of the final 10 minutes of the Crimson’s 73-71 loss to Yale in the semifinals of the Ivy League tournament

The Crimson’s freshman phenom and the Ivy’s rookie of the year was trying to put Harvard (18-10) on his back and carry it out of a hole single-handedly, burying 3-pointers and driving to the basket.

When the Crimson found themselves down, 71-69, with 25 seconds left, there was no question where the ball was going. The only unknown was whether Aiken could finish the job he’d started.

Yale refused to let it happen.

When Aiken got to the rim — dribble, dribble, up with the right — he found himself in a forest of Bulldog big men with no choice but to look for a bailout pass.

The pass he was hoping would find Zena Edosomwan landed in the hands of Yale forward Sam Downey and ostensibly ended Harvard’s hopes of advancing in the first-ever Ivy tournament.

The Crimson had to foul guard Trey Phills. He went to the line and split two free throws, and even though Harvard still had a shot, down 72-69, with 21 seconds left, everyone in The Palestra knew who ultimately was going to take it.

Harvard point guard Siyani Chambers tried to air a skip pass across the wing to Aiken, wrapping around a screen, but Yale freshman forward Jordan Bruner read it the whole way, hawking the pass like a cornerback to seal things for Yale.

“I’m pretty sure everybody on the floor knew Bryce was getting the ball,’’ Bruner said. “He had shot it for like the last seven possessions straight.’’

Despite scoring a game-high 28 points on 11-of-25 shooting, Aiken was in tears on the bench after the Crimson’s season-ending loss.

On sheer will, Aiken tried to push the Crimson closer to their first NCAA Tournament since 2015. Instead, they’ll miss out for the second straight year after making four consecutive tournament appearances. Aiken scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half after going 3 for 7 in the first.

“He’s a creative shot-maker and playmaker, and we needed him to do exactly that,’’ said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker. “I thought he did a tremendous job of putting us in position to have an opportunity to pull it out. We wouldn’t even be close if he wasn’t able to have some heroic shots and big plays that he made for our team.’’

Yale coach James Jones didn’t have to look very far back to remember being on the bitter side of the Harvard-Yale rivalry. It was only two years ago that his Bulldogs lost a one-game playoff to the Crimson in the same building. He said he watched video of that loss leading up to Saturday’s game for motivation.

“Just to take a look at what we were doing and get that ping in my stomach again about it and maybe help me coach a little harder,’’ Jones said.

The first time the teams met in February, Jones was caught off-guard by a Harvard team that launched 30 3-pointers. It wasn’t the Crimson team he was used to seeing in his 18 years on the sideline for the Bulldogs. He was more used to the one that went 6 for 18 from 3-point land two weeks later, but did most of its damage at the rim.

He came into Saturday’s game prepared for Harvard to let it fly from long range.

The Crimson spent most of the game scrambling to find clean looks from the 3-point line and struggling to knock down the ones they got.

They went 9 for 36 from deep, they took 77 shots as a team (by far a season high, although nowhere near the school-record 99 taken by the Crimson in 1972 against Springfield), but made just 27.

“We certainly felt that we had a lot of open looks,’’ Amaker said. “Good shooters on our team — [Seth] Towns and Corey Johnson — guys that, ordinarily, we need them to make shots for us. Today was one of those days where we weren’t able to do it. We wanted to take our open threes, that’s how we’ve gotten to this point, we certainly didn’t have it this afternoon.’’

In the meantime, Yale (18-10) dominated the paint (42 points) — led by freshman Miye Oni (18 points) and Downey (13 points, 10 rebounds) — to set up a matchup in the tournament final on Sunday against Princeton.

But for Harvard — and Aiken — the question now is where a young team goes from such a devastating end to the season.

“We’ve been in positions before, in the earlier part of my tenure at Harvard, where you have to have your hearts broken a few times,’’ Amaker said. “It’s happened for us as we’ve been able to build and grow our program and this is always a part of the process for various stages of your program. This is one of those moments. Those are the kinds of moments that really propelled us to consecutive Ivy titles and going to the tournament. If we use it the right way, we’ll be able to look back on this as a moment of growth.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbow.