SWARTHMORE, Pa.—In a battle of two teams who made the NCAA Tournament last season, No. 25 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball fought off the Albertus Magnus College Falcons 95-85 on Saturday night.
The Garnet (2-0) saw their double-digit first-half lead turn into an 11-point deficit in the second period. However, the Garnet scored seven consecutive field goals without a miss midway through the second half to climb out of the hole and re-eastablish a double-digit advantage to close out the game.
Down 11 with 15 minutes remaining in the second, Swarthmore's
Cam Wiley drained a 3-pointer to get the rally started. Wiley, who scored a game-high 26 points, netted a pair of free throws on Swarthmore's next possession.
Zack Yonda then followed by getting to the hoop for a layup after a feed from
Robbie Walsh. Wiley scored another layup and then dropped a 3-pointer that pulled Swarthmore within three points with 12:43 to go. Wiley then scored another duo of free throws to make it a one-point game (62-61) with 12 minutes left.
Freshman
Ryan Ingram hit a pair of free throws after pump faking on the wing and getting tackled and gave Swarthmore the 63-62 lead. It was the first lead for Swarthmore since the 5:40 mark in the first half.
Albertus Magnus took the lead back for one possession, but the Garnet then scored 17 straight points to put the game out of reach.
Wiley and
Zac O'Dell were a rebound shy of recording double-doubles. O'Dell finished with 14 points.
Yonda scored 19 points and went 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Bigs
Robbie Walsh and
Nate Shafer both had double-digit points as well, scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively.
The Garnet out-rebounded the visitors 46-32. Swarthmore shot 50.8 percent from the floor and 83.9 percent from the free-throw line.
Swarthmore travels to Washington College on Tuesday for an 8 p.m. game.