SWARTHMORE, Pa.—No. 15 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday evening, falling in the opening game of the Garnet Holiday Tournament to the Rowan University Profs 92-84. Swarthmore had erased a 19-point second-half deficit to take the lead with four minutes to go, 73-71, but the Profs (7-4) pulled away down the stretch.
Swarthmore had five players reach double-figures in scoring with Robbie Walsh scoring a team-high 19 points. Cam Wiley added 17 points, Henry Cousineau posted 16, Chris Bourne chipped in 11 and Sam Lebryk contributed 10.
The Garnet again dominated on the boards, pulling down 55 rebounds to Rowan's 33. Swarthmore edged Rowan in field goal percentage, shooting 37.7 percent to Rowan's 36.5 percent. Both teams posted seven blocks, but Rowan had the advantage in ball control. Swarthmore committed 22 turnovers while Rowan gave up possession seven times.
Swarthmore and Rowan battled to a 40-40 tie through the first half, with the lead changing hands eight times. The Garnet took the lead with three minutes to go in the first period on an alley-oop dunk by Walsh set up by a pass from Jim Lammers. Walsh evened the score at halftime, getting a block, defensive rebound and then a layup on the other end to close out the period.
In the second half, the Profs went on a torrid 23-4 run in the first seven minutes. The Garnet began to chip away and cut the deficit to single digits with 8:37 remaining after a 3-pointer from Cousineau at the top of the arc made it 65-58. A Zack Yonda triple with 5:42 to play cut the lead to four. After Rowan hit a pair of free throws, Cousineau knocked down another trey and Wiley finished a layup to make it a one-point game with 4:24 to go. Walsh picked up his third block of the game on the other end of the court and then came back down on offense to make a layup and draw the foul for the old-fashioned three-point play. Walsh's play gave Swarthmore the lead for the first time in the period and helped the Garnet erase a 19-point deficit over the course of nine minutes.
The furious run however couldn't be contained and Rowan pulled away in the final minutes. With the loss, Swarthmore stands at 7-1 on the year. The Garnet will face Averett University at 1 p.m. Sunday in the consolation game of the Garnet Holiday Tournament.
