SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Behind the hot shooting of guard Matt Brennan, Swarthmore College Men's Basketball started a new win streak on Thursday night. The Swarthmore Garnet bounce the Gettysburg College Bullets 71-62 with Brennan leading all scorers with a career-high 26 points.
Thursday's game was an important bounce-back game for the Garnet (10-1, 4-0) who were coming off their first loss of the season. In Sunday's loss at Delaware Valley, the Garnet had their worst outing of the season from beyond the arc (7.7 percent), but on Thursday, the Garnet responded with their best 3-point performance. Swarthmore knocked down 10 triples on 16 chances for a 62.5 percent output. Brennan spearheaded that effort by cashing in on 7-of-9 3-point shots.
Zack Yonda scored 16 points as the only other Garnet player in double-figures. Yonda soared for a two-handed slam dunk with 1:34 remaining in the contest to emphatically seal the victory for Swarthmore.
The game began with a hot start for both teams. After the first four minutes and change, Swarthmore led 15-11, having made its first six field goals. The torrid pace cooled slightly for both teams, but the game remained virtually even throughout the half. Swarthmore went ahead 33-32 with a Brennan-trey with 1:47 to go, but Gettysburg regained the lead at the halftime buzzer on a tip-in.
In the second half, with post player Chris Bourne on the bench in foul trouble, Robbie Walsh provided an offensive spark, with six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Swarthmore caught up to Gettysburg at 40-40 with 15:53 to play on a Brennan 3-pointer and then took the lead for on another Brennan 3-pointer 38 seconds later.
The Garnet finally created some separation from the Bullets with a quick 8-0 run; freshman Henry Cousineau knocked down a 3-pointer, Brennan followed with his seventh trey of the game and then Walsh capped the run with layup at 2:31 which put Swarthmore ahead 59-50. Gettysburg, who had only been whistled for two fouls up to that point in the half, began to foul intentionally to force Swarthmore into the bonus. Yonda dodged the foul on an inbounds play and broke away for the two-hand jam to put Swarthmore ahead 61-50, its biggest lead of the game.
Swarthmore went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line in the final 90 seconds to clinch the win.
The Garnet play their third game of the week on Saturday when they travel to Franklin & Marshall College. Both Swarthmore and F&M are 4-0 in the conference.
