St. Mary's City, Md. - The Swarthmore College men's basketball team's final game of the Seahawk Holiday Classic ended on a sour note, as the Garnet were soundly defeated by Old Westbury 97-67 on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Karl Barkley led the Garnet (3-8, 2-3) with 12 points on four three-pointers. Freshman Shane Loeffler scored nine points and dished out a team-high five assists. Senior Will Gates added eight points and five rebounds and freshman Ethan Lee netted seven points while pulling down seven boards.

For their efforts, Gates and junior Joe Keedy were named to the All-Classic team.

Four different players reached double-digits for the Panthers (8-2), led by Tyrik Tucker's 23 points. Kerel Mitchell scored 21 points while Josh Hill added 18 off the bench.

The Panthers dominated in all phases of the game, shooting a red-hot 52 percent from the field, 82 percent from the free-throw line (23-of-28) and forcing 21 Garnet turnovers.

A back-and-forth contest for the first 10 minutes, the Panthers opened it up midway through the first stanza. A lay-up from Hill at the 11:46 mark put the Panthers on top 17-16 and spurred a 19-7 run over the next five minutes of play, making it a 35-23 game.

With some separation from Swarthmore, Old Westbury continued to pour it on until the halftime whistle. Led by six points from Hill and six from Mitchell - four of which came in the final 13 seconds of the half - the Panthers closed out the remaining six minutes of the half on an 18-9 run to take a commanding 50-32 lead into the break.

In the second half, it was more of the same from a prolific Old Westbury offense that hit the century mark in its previous game. The Panthers shot just shy of 60 percent in the second half to finish off the 30-point win.

Swarthmore finished with nine three-pointers for the second-consecutive game, led by Barkley's four. 

Freshman Mike Argosh finished with seven points. Freshman Sean Thaxter added three assists and two steals.

Swarthmore returns home and finishes non-conference play on Wednesday, Jan. 2 when it hosts 320-rival Widener.  Play is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.

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