SWARTHMORE, Pa.—No. 9 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball held off the visiting Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays 79-70 on Thursday night.
Swarthmore improved to 13-1 and a perfect 7-0 in Centennial Conference play. Johns Hopkins was dealt just its fourth loss of the season and the Blue Jays slipped to 10-4 (4-3 Centennial).
The matchup pitted brothers and Swarthmore alumni Shane and Josh Loeffler against each other. Shane '15, Swarthmore assistant coach, got the better of his older brother Josh '03, the first-year head coach at Hopkins.
Cam Wiley and
Nate Shafer both scored a team-high 19 points for the Garnet. Wiley finished a rebound shy of a double-double and scored nine of his points from the free-throw line. Shafer added seven boards and two blocks. Two of Shafer's buckets came on thunderous dunks in traffic.
Zack Yonda netted 15 points and went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line. A miss with 35 seconds left snapped his Centennial Conference record 48 straight successful free throws. He began a new streak by making his final shot of the night.
Conor Harkins posted 14 points including a wild one-footed 3-pointer that he banked in off the backboard to beat an expiring shot clock.
Shafer and Harkins registered 33 of Swarthmore's 38 points off the bench. Johns Hopkins' bench was held to 14 points.
The visitors were led in scoring by Michael Gardner's 19 points.
Swarthmore out-muscled the Blue Jays on the glass, winning the rebound battle 39-29.
Both teams started out slow on Thursday with the first bucket finally arriving three minutes into play with a layup by Shafer. The Garnet trailed by one point briefly with 11:27 to go in the first half but regained the lead on the next possession with a pair of free throws from Yonda.
Swarthmore pushed its lead to 15 toward the end of the first half with a 10-0 run that included two Harkins 3-pointers.
Swarthmore's lead fluctuated in the second period but hovered around 10 points until Hopkins pulled within four points with 9:47 to go. Swarthmore responded with a 12-2 run to regain control of the contest.
Next up for Swarthmore is No. 22 Franklin & Marshall College on the road Saturday at 3 p.m.
