Tigers Claw Past Garnet
GEORGETOWN, Tex. - Trinity (TX) guard Brandon York came off the bench to score 13 points and center Mike Glib added 11 points as the Tigers defeated Swarthmore 57-41 in second round action at the Holiday Hoops Classic on Saturday evening in central Texas.
Garnet junior forward Steve Wolf led Swarthmore (3-7) with 12 points and nine rebounds while classmate Ian McCormick grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.
The Tigers (6-5) have earned a berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament each of the past four seasons—they are the third team Swarthmore faced this season that played in the 2006 NCAA Tournament (Wittenberg and Ursinus are the other two).
The start of tonight's game was unlike Friday night's game against Southwestern where 20 days without competition showed in the low shooting percentages on both sides.
Wolf opened the game with his patented up-and-under move in the post and Tigers' guard Charles Johnson responded with an elbow jumper to knot the game at 2-2. Fliegelman's runner in the lane as the shot clock expired gave the Garnet an early 7-4 lead at 15:01. The Tigers clipped off a 12-2 run, led by eight points from York, to assume a 14-9 lead at the 11:41 mark.
Swarthmore freshman Sean Johnson's three-pointer from the corner at 11:32 brought the Garnet within 16-12 and Wolf's lay-up 90 seconds later cut the deficit to 18-14 with 9:45. The Garnet got within three points, 24-21, after freshman Matt Allen's 50-foot outlet found Wolf wide-open on the fast break at 4:29 left in the half. Wolf kissed a short jumper off the glass at 1:55 to cut it to 24-23, but the Tigers' Polidgroff finished off a move inside and then found cutting teammate Jonathan Lewis for the hoop and the foul, pushing Trinity's lead back to six.
The Tigers took the 29-23 lead into the locker room, forcing 12 Garnet turnovers while holding a slight rebounding edge (17-15). York led Trinity with eight points while Lewis dropped in seven—the Tigers bench tallied 23 of the 26 points in the first 20 minutes.
Wolf led all scorers with 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting while McCormick contributed seven rebounds and two blocks as Swarthmore shot 45.5% from the floor in the first half.
Trinity opened up the second half by attacking the interior Swarthmore defense, dropping a 9-5 run to open a 38-28 lead. The Garnet responded with three-pointer from Matt Kurman '08 and then McCormick split the double-team and found Johnson open under the rim to cut the deficit to 38-33 at the 10:38 mark.
Glib pushed Trinity's lead back to 43-34 with a lay-up inside at 8:31. York scored his 10th point of the night a minute later and Glib put in another score to push the Tigers' lead to 12 at 6:30.
Garnet first-year Matt Turner's jumper and lay-up by McCormick bookend another Glib bucket as the Garnet got within 10 points, 49-39, with four minutes remaining.
The Trinity defense was able to turn up Garnet turnovers (25 on the night) and late foul shooting kept Swarthmore at bay. Both teams struggled from the line overall—Swarthmore was 6 of 13 (46%) while the Tigers were not much better at 11 of 21 (52%).
York finished 5 of 11, including two three-pointers, to held send Trinity to a third consecutive win. Glib contributed many of his points late, hitting 5 of 6 while picking up three boards and a steal.
Turner contributed nine points on the night for the Garnet while senior guard Chris Casey handed out five assists for the second straight game. Casey is tops in the Centennial in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.80) and is third in the Centennial in assists per game (3.70).
McCormick's pair of blocks gives the Seattle-native a team-high 21 on the season and moves the junior into second place all-time at Swarthmore with 93 career swats.
Swarthmore returns to Philadelphia on January 3 for a 7:00 p.m. non-conference game at Philadelphia Bible and will resume Centennial Conference action on January 6 at Dickinson. The Garnet hit the Tarble Pavilion floor on January when Centennial-rival Gettysburg College comes to town for a 4:00 p.m. game.