LANCASTER, Pa.—No. 1 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball improved to 13-0 (6-0 Centennial) on the season after winning a defensive tussle with the Franklin & Marshall College Diplomats 68-53 on Saturday. The Garnet have now won back-to-back games in Lancaster after dropping the prior 12 contests there.
The deep ball wasn't falling for the Garnet on Saturday, but they worked the ball inside and scored 38 points in the paint and 18 more from the free-throw line. Swarthmore shot 45.3 percent from the floor but that number was dragged down by a season-worst 10.5 percent (2-for-19) outing from 3-point territory. Swarthmore's 81.8 percent mark from the free-throw line was its second-best this year.
Senior forward Nate Shafer tallied a team-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting while gathering a team-high eight rebounds in just 23 minutes. Freshman point guard Vinny DeAngelo sank all eight of his free-throw tries and finished with a season-high 15 points.
Colin Shaw and George Visconti each pitched in nine points. Zac O'Dell scored six points but had his playing time limited because of foul trouble.
Brian Hines scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Diplomats, who dropped to 6-7 (2-4 Centennial) with the loss.
Turnover numbers were high for both teams with F&M coughing up the ball 23 times and Swarthmore 19 times. The Garnet capitalized for 27 points off of F&M giveaways.
Swarthmore score the opening basket and never trailed. The Garnet went out to a 9-2 lead at the start, but as both offenses were slow to score on Saturday, the score sat at 11-9 after 12 minutes of action.
A dunk by Shafer with 4:15 left in the first quieted the home crowd and gave Swarthmore a 21-11 advantage.
Visconti sank a jumper with three seconds left in the first to send Swarthmore to the locker room up 14, 29-15. Swarthmore pushed the lead as large as 21 points in the second half. A 13-1 burst for the Garnet in the first part of the second half put the game out of reach for the Dips.
Swarthmore returns home on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. tilt with a surging 11-2 Haverford squad.
