SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Three Garnet players scored double-digit points in Friday evening's Garnet Holiday Tournament win over the Earlham College Quakers. Swarthmore College Men's Basketball held off the Quakers 72-62 to improve to 8-0 to start the season.

Sophomore Zack Yonda scored a game-high 25 points, going 7-for-11 from the floor and a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. Yonda canned all of his free throws in the second half. Big men Chris Bourne and Sean Thaxter contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively. The 11 points matched a career high for Thaxter. Bourne scored 12 of his points in the first period.

The Garnet controlled the glass, grabbing 45 rebounds to the Quakers' 23 boards. Forward Robbie Walsh collected a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with his five points and two blocks. Walsh's block with 1:49 to play emphatically sealed the game in Swarthmore's favor.

Earlham (0-7) matched the Garnet in the second half with 32 points, but couldn't bridge the 10-point first-half deficit. Kyle Smith led the Quakers with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

The first half progressed in a back-and-forth manner until Swarthmore gained ground with four minutes remaining. Up by just three, Swarthmore's Zack Yonda dropped in a jumper in the lane to give Swarthmore a 33-28 lead. This sparked a 9-0 run for Swarthmore that included a layup by Chris Bourne, a 3-pointer by Henry Cousineau and a layup by Sean Thaxter.

In the second half, both teams struggled to find a rhythm from the floor. Swarthmore went for seven-and-a-half minutes without a field goal, and Earlham had a dry-spell that lasted nearly eight minutes. A long jumper by Thaxter with 10:03 remaining ended the drought for the Garnet and bumped their lead back up to 49-39. The Garnet lead reached as high as 15 points after a pair of Yonda free throws with 1:59 to go.

With the win, Swarthmore plays Wells College Express at 3 p.m. Sunday in the championship game of the Garnet Holiday Tournament.