SWARTHMORE, Pa.—No. 12 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball battled against the Gettysburg College Bullets on Saturday afternoon, winning 69-61. The Garnet improved to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in Centennial Conference play while the Bullets slid to 3-9 (1-4 conference).

Zack Yonda returned to starting lineup for the first time since December 13 and appeared to be back to his old self, scoring a game-high 21 points. Yonda netted a perfect 12-of-12 attempts from the free-throw line and has now made 38 attempts in a row dating back to November 21, setting a new conference record. Yonda held the previous Centennial Conference record of 34 in 2015. 

Surprisingly, the visitors shot better than the Garnet by percentage in every category and even out-rebounded the Garnet by two boards, 35-33. Swarthmore's volume of free throws proved to be a big difference; Swarthmore shot 18-for-21 from the line and Gettysburg went 7-for-8 from the stripe.

Perhaps the biggest key to Saturday's win was Swarthmore's ability to protect the rock. The Garnet only turned the ball over eight times, a season low. Meanwhile, Swarthmore's defense forced 14 Gettysburg turnovers. Swarthmore had seven steals with Zac O'Dell and Ryan Ingram each nabbing a pair of takeaways.

O'Dell joined Yonda in double-digit scoring, netting 12 on 5-of-11 shooting. O'Dell has scored 10 or more points in nine games this season and is averaging 12.1 points per game, third-most on the team.

Swarthmore recorded seven blocks with Nate Shafer posting a game-high four.

For the Bullets, Cameron Stewart led the way with 18 points and Nick Antolini contributed 17 points.

Swarthmore got off to a bit of a slow start and trailed nine minutes into the game. Yonda helped start the turn around when he got tackled in the corner on a 3-point attempt. Yonda converted all three of the resulting free throws and then sank a triple on Swarthmore's next possession to give Swarthmore its first lead with 11:14 left in the first half.

Swarthmore held a 17-15 lead with 6:38 to go in the first half and then went for eight straight points off of a layup and 3-pointer by O'Dell and a 3-pointer from Ryan Ingram.

Swarthmore led by five at halftime. Gettysburg closed to within three with 12:41 to play, but Swarthmore then pulled away with an 11-0 run. Gettysburg got within six points in the final 30 seconds, but Swarthmore went 4-for-4 in that span to hold off the Bullets.

Swarthmore is back in action on Tuesday at McDaniel College for an 8 p.m. game.