BALTIMORE--In a matchup featuring the best combined ranking in Centennial Conference men's basketball history, the No. 1 Swarthmore College Garnet emerged victorious over the No. 7 Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays 83-69 on Wednesday night.
For Swarthmore (22-0, 15-0 Centennial), the win in Baltimore was the first for head coach
Landry Kosmalski in Baltimore and the program's first win at Goldfarb Gym since Feb. 2011. The Garnet are looking to start a new trend after struggling on the road at Hopkins historically (5-41 since 1952).
Fueled by a season-high 25 points for
Conor Harkins in his second 20-plus-point performance in a row, the Garnet handed the Blue Jays just their third loss of the season. Harkins shot 5-of-10 from long-range and 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Zac O'Dell registrered his eighth double-double of the season and his third in as many games with an 18-point, 14-board performance.
Fellow big
Nate Shafer contributed six points and 10 rebounds to go along with four assists and three blocks. Shafer and O'Dell are ranked first and second in the Centennial Conference in blocks, and as a team, the Garnet are 10th nationwide in blocks per game.
Vinny DeAngelo added 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting but had his consecutive free-throws made streak stopped at 21.
Ryan Ingram pitched in nine points and five boards in relief.
Swarthmore shot 47.2 percent from the floor and contained Hopkins to 38.2 percent overall. Hopkins chucked up 36 attempts from 3-point range and only made eight of them for a 22.2 percent success rate.
Conner Delaney led the Blue Jays with 24 points while shooting 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) from the floor.
The Garnet earned their second-most trips to the foul line this season, and went 24-of-35 (68.6 percent) from the stripe.
Swarthmore jumped out to a 7-0 lead to set the tone. Hopkins rallied and went ahead by five points with 12 minutes left in the first half. Swarthmore trailed for the next five minutes, but a triple from Harkins with 4:36 left in the first put Swarthmore ahead for good.
The Garnet held a 3-point lead after a Hopkins bucket to open the second half, but the Garnet responded with an 11-point salvo.
Soon up 20, Swarthmore kept Hopkins from scoring at all for a five-minute stretch.
Hopkins trimmed the lead to nine with seven minutes to go after a run of its own, but the Blue Jays would come no closer.
The Garnet return home on Saturday for a 3 p.m. senior day showdown with Dickinson.