If a ticket deal on Craigslist seems too good to be true, it probably is. One college athlete learned that lesson the hard way when he bought two bogus tickets to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden. But the track star got the last laugh.

A Columbia University athlete who competes in track and field (who declined to be named) responded to a Craigslist ad offering two tickets for $210 each to the hottest sporting event in the city, and picked up the tickets outside the arena before the game, according to the New York Post.

The 20-year-old and his friend presented the tickets to an MSG ticket-taker, who informed the duo that the tickets were counterfeit. That’s when the athlete’s Ivy League smarts kicked in.

The pair still had the hustler’s number, so the friend called back requesting more tickets. When the alleged crook arrived at a meeting place, the track star confronted him and demanded his money back.

“He just thought I was some other random customer at first, and he didn’t even recognize me,” the student said. “Then, I pulled out the tickets he scammed me with.”

The scam artist tried to run, but the student-athlete chased him about 17 blocks and subdued him with the help of a pedestrian until police arrived.