Box Score SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Swarthmore men's basketball team pulled out a 76-75 nail biter at home over archrival Haverford on Jan. 21 at Tarble Pavilion. The classic matchup went to overtime and saw the home crowd heading home happy.
Haverford (3-13, CC 1-8) drew first blood on a 3-pointer from James Levine off of the dime from Lucas Colombo. Freshman guard
Zack Yonda answered quickly for Swarthmore (7-9, CC 3-6) with a driving lay-up in the Garnet's first possession of the contest. The Fords maintained their lead throughout the opening minutes of the first half until a 3-point ball from freshman
Matt Brennan gave the home team a 19-18 lead at the 11:42 mark.
The pendulum quickly swung back in Haverford's favor, giving the visitors a five-point advantage with 7:14 to go in the half following two free throws from Gibby Graves. However, the Garnet used a string of strong defensive stops to turn the course of the action. An
Andrew Kaufmann lay-up with 1:13 remaining gave Swarthmore a 40-36 lead heading into the locker room.
Despite heading into the half down by four, Haverford surged strongly in the second period, tying the game at 48 with 13:59 to go. Falling victim to tight defense and strong offensive execution by Haverford, the Garnet were staring down the barrel of a nine-point deficit with just 10:46 left in the game.
After a Lucas Colombo lay-up gave the Fords a 57-48 lead, Coach Kosmalski called a time out and effectively rallied the troops. The Garnet caught fire from 3-point land as sophomore
Sam Lebryk, Yonda and Kaufmann each cashed in from downtown and erased the deficit with 7:07 remaining.
Swarthmore was not going to let this one slip away and their high level of effort spoke for itself. Yonda put the fans on their feet with a spectacular diving steal at the 6:17 mark. Coach Kosmalski quickly maintained possession with a timeout and rewarded the freshman guard's effort with a pretty inbounds play that resulted in a lay-up for Yonda. Swarthmore was back in the lead, 61-59 with 6:06 to go.
Neither team backed down in the waning minutes of regulation. A corner three by Levine gave Haverford the lead with less than three minutes to play. Down 70-67 with :41 seconds left on the clock, freshman
Matt Brennan sunk arguably the biggest shot of his collegiate career with a clutch 3-pointer that sent the game into extra time.
Overtime proved to be no less stressful for either team. Down 75-74 with 1:33 left in the contest, Yonda stepped to the free throw line and calmly put the Garnet up for good. Despite a devastating Haverford turnover with seven seconds remaining, Levine had a chance to pull out the victory for the Fords as time expired. Levine lined up his attempt perfectly, only to see it clank off the front iron as the game's length had finally taken its toll on his jumpshot.
The Garnet played a strong game all around, shooting 51% from the field. Bourne led the way with a 20 and 12 double-double. Brennan added 10 points and six assists while Yonda poured in 17 for the home team. Kaufmann played a key role under the rim, pulling down eight rebounds in addition to his nine points.
Haverford was impressively led by Levine who drained four 3-pointers and accumulated seven boards en route to a 27 point performance. Anthony Reyes and Matt Sherman supported Levine with 15 and 14 points respectively in the losing effort.
The victory gives Swarthmore some much needed momentum as they will face one of their most difficult tests of the season on Saturday, Jan. 24th. The men head to Carlisle Pa. to take on #7 Dickinson at 4 pm.
