SWARTHMORE, Pa.—No. 1 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball fought off the visiting Muhlenberg College Mules in a packed Tarble Pavilion on Friday night in the Centennial Conference Championship. Colin Shaw sank a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to secure the 65-62 victory for Swarthmore.
The Garnet, now 26-0, broke the Centennial Conference record for longest win streak and advanced to the championship round for the fifth consecutive season and the sixth time in program history.
Swarthmore's offensive attack was spread out with five different players crossing the 10-point mark. Ryan Ingram splashed four 3-pointers for a team-leading 12 points. George Visconti and Conor Harkins each pitched in 11 points. Harkins is now eight points shy of 1,000 for his career.
Nate Shafer and Vinny DeAngelo both posted 10 points. Shaw added six, and Zac O'Dell tallied five points and a game-high eight rebounds and five assists.
The lead changed hands 10 times, but Swarthmore led for the majority of the contest (56.3% of the time).
The Garnet clung to a 36-35 lead at halftime. Both teams shot well, but Muhlenberg was shooting 53.3 percent from 3-point range in the first half, and had made several attempts from beyond NBA range. Muhlenberg dared Swarthmore to shoot outside in the second half by employing a zone defense, and the Garnet couldn't capitalize as much as they wanted, going just 3-of-13 from long-range in the second half.
Swarthmore, however, was effective at the free-throw line, going 8-of-10 from the stripe. Muhlenberg shot a woeful 3-for-9 from the line, a big difference in the outcome of the game.
Swarthmore shined in the transition game. The Garnet went ahead by four with 17:31 left after DeAngelo blocked a layup on the defensive end, slung a pass to Ingram who threaded a perfect pass to Visconti for the fastbreak layup on the other end.
DeAngelo later zipped a pass on the run from half court through traffic to find O'Dell open for a layup underneath, giving Swarthmore a 50-48 lead with 11 minutes left. A steal and a layup by DeAngelo gave Swarthmore the 56-53 advantage with 4:13 left. Ingram knocked down a triple with 2:45 to go to make it a two-possession game. A Harkins attempt on the next possession would have almost certainly been a dagger, but it rimmed out and Muhlenberg responded with a three of its own.
Dan Gaines, who led Muhlenberg with 20 points, dropped in a layup with 29 seconds left to make it a one-point game. Visconti sank a pair of free throws and then Gains responded with another jumper.
Muhlenberg fouled with 10 seconds left, and much like he did on the road against Ursinus, Shaw came through again in crunch time from the free-throw line and iced the game with a successful pair.
Swarthmore shut down Muhlenberg's attempt to get off a good look at a 3-pointer and held on for the 65-62 win.
The Garnet host Johns Hopkins for the Centennial Conference Championship for the third season in a row. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
