SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Swarthmore College Men's Basketball nearly overcame its worst field-goal shooting game of the year on Saturday, but the Garnet's first-half bricklaying created a wall a little too deep to climb over. Swarthmore pulled within one point with 1:47 to play, but fell to the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays 62-53.
After shooting 17.1 percent from the floor in the first half, the Garnet trailed the Blue Jays by 13 at intermission. The visitors, on the other hand, hit nearly every other bucket, shooting 48.3 percent. The Garnet limited the Blue Jays to a 34.6 percent clip in the second half while shooting an improved 31.3 percent from the floor. The Garnet's shooting balanced out to 23.9 percent for the afternoon, seven percent worse than the team's previous low set on Wednesday. Swarthmore took a season-high 33 3-pointers, but sank seven of them (21.2 percent).
Swarthmore did have success from the free-throw line, sinking 14-of-15 attempts.
Freshman guard Christian Rhodes scored a team-high 11 points for the Garnet in 16 minutes of play. Robbie Walsh added nine points and seven rebounds. Henry Cousineau pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds and chipped in nine points as well.
Hopkins had five players in double figures and were led by Gene Williams' 13 points.
Swarthmore started its second-half turnaround with a Rhodes' trey with 12:41 that cut Hopkins' lead to seven. Then with 11:13 to play, Sam Lebryk hit a jump shot to make it a 43-38 game. Cousineau came away with a steal and went all the way to the hoop for a layup, cutting Hopkins' lead to 43-40 with 10:48 to go.
Swarthmore kept pace with the Blue Jays and Robbie Walsh hit a free-throw with 1:47 to play that cut Hopkins' lead to just one, 54-53. The Garnet couldn't find a bucket the rest of the way, however, missing two 3-pointers and turning the ball over twice.
The Garnet, now 15-4 (9-3 Centennial) after dropping the season series with Hopkins, are in second place in the conference. Hopkins (9-9, 6-5) still sits in fourth place.
Swarthmore looks to bounce back on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at home against Ursinus.
