Tundel Hits Career-Best as Bears Survive Garnet
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- Swarthmore freshman center Jon Tundel scored a career-high 20 points, but the visiting Bears put five players in double digits to leave Swarthmore with a 82-68 Centennial victory on Thursday evening in Tarble Pavilion.
Tundel shot 8 for 13 from the floor and four of six from the free throw line for a game-high 20 points to go along with a game-high nine boards. The freshman nearly ripped the backboard from the ceiling late in the first half, finishing off a long pass from sophomore Steve Wolf with an emphatic two-handed jam.
The Bears' pre-season All-American candidate, Mike McGarvey, and swing man Nick Shattuck had 15 points apiece, guard Brian McEvily chipped in 14, forward Will Furey added 13, and forward Joe Scholz dropped in 12 points off the bench.
Ursinus, the 2005 Centennial Conference champion, came out firing in the first half, shooting a blistering 59% (17 for 29) in the first half. Garnet sophomore forward Ian McCormick dropped in a jumper at 15:11 to make it 7-5 Bears before Ursinus ticked off a 12-1 run capped by a Bret Jenkins triple to push the lead to 19-6 with 12:33 left in the half.
The Bears lead grew to as much as 18 (36-18 with 4:05 remaining) and stood at 43-26 when the halftime horn sounded. McGarvey and McEvily led all scores with 11 points while McCormick dropped in nine for the Garnet.
Swarthmore hit the ground running in the second half, cutting the Bears' advantage to 47-34 following a Tundel jumper in the paint at 16:55. The Garnet took over the hot-shooting in the second frame, hitting at 47% clip (15-32) including four triples.
Ursinus (5-2 overall, 3-1 CC) maintained a double-digit lead in the second half by taking advantage of 29 trips to the charity stripe in the second half. The Bears' finished second in the Centennial in 2004-05 in free throw percentage (74%), and hit an impressive 31 out of 36 (86%) on this night. Swarthmore, on the other hand, managed only to hit half of its attempts at the line (11 for 22).
The Garnet kept coming at Ursinus in the second half, cutting the Bears' lead to nine, 65-56, after a Kurman three-pointer at 5:57. Ursinus got two quick lay-ups from Furey and Shattuck to push the lead to 13 and then sank nine of ten from the line to win its fifth game of the season.
Kurman flipped in a 45-footer at the buzzer for the final margin.
Kurman dropped in 15 points for Swarthmore (0-9 overall, 0-4 CC), the sixth time this season he has reached double figures. McCormick added 10 points, continuing his streak of nine games with 10 or more points. Junior guard Chris Casey dropped off a season-high six assists and added three steals.
McGarvey handed out a game-high seven assists for the Bears while Scholz led with a team-high five boards.
The Garnet take 23 days off for finals and the holidays, resuming competition on January 2 at 2:00 p.m. when they host Whitman (Wa.).