SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Advancing to the Centennial Conference Men's Basketball Championship for the seventh consecutive season, the Swarthmore men's basketball team took down Gettysburg College in the semi-finals, defeating the Bullets on Friday, Feb. 24th by a score of 95-81.
Offensively, the Garnet were captained by a two headed scoring machine, with junior
Vinny DeAngelo dropping 23 points and junior
Michael Caprise notching 21 of his own. Swarthmore saw significant production across the board, with senior
George Corzine (15), senior
George Visconti (12) and senior
Colin Shaw (10) all putting up double digit performances of their own.
Caprise also proved an anchor defensively for the Garnet, pulling down nine rebounds, while Corizne added five rebounds and a steal of his own.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Both squads started off the first half deadlocked, unable to pull away from each other, exchanging buckets and the lead. Through the first six and a half minutes of play, the lead changed hands five times, with the score also being tied on three separate occasions.
- Swarthmore were finally able to secure some breathing room off of two made free throws from Caprise, going up 13-11 with 12:48 left in the period, a lead that they would ultimately never give up. Caprise's success from the line ignited a 13-0 Garnet run, with Swarthmore seizing a 22-11 advantage just under ten minutes into the half.
- A layup from DeAngelo would grow the Garnet's lead to as much as 13 with eight minutes to play, and while the Bullets would be able to shrink the margin back down to the single digits, that success would not last. A late 9-4 run to end the half secured the Garnet a comfortable 49-34 advantage going into the half, with DeAngelo, Caprise, Visconti, first year
Eddie Paquette and sophomore
Aidan Godfrey all contributing to the onslaught.
- The Garnet started the second half picking up where they left off, securing two quick buckets in the opening minutes to go up 53-34. While Gettysburg were able to find points of their own, they simply could not match Swarthmore's artillery-barrage levels of shooting, with the Garnet taking a 24 point lead with 8:52 left in the contest. Swarthmore would grow that advantage to as many as 27 points, their largest lead of the game.
- While the Bullets would attempt to stage a late comeback, coming within as few as 13 points, the Garnet's lead proved insurmountable, as Swarthmore came away with the 95-81 victory, securing their spot in the finals.
GARNET LEADERS
Points: DeAngelo (23), Caprise (21), Corzine (15), Visconti (12), Shaw (10)
Assists: Paquette (5), DeAngelo (3), Caprise (3), Visconti (3)
Rebounds: Caprise (9), Shaw (6), Corzine (5), Paquette (5)
Steals: DeAngelo (1), Visconti (1), Corzine (1)
UP NEXT
Matching up with the Blue Jays for the fifth consecutive season, the Garnet will take on the No.1 seeded and No.7 nationally ranked Johns Hopkins University on Sunday, Feb. 26th in the Centennial Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
