Swarthmore Banks on Kurman Runner for Win
LANCASTER, Pa. - Swarthmore junior guard Matt Kurman banked in a running one-hander with one second left to send the Garnet to its first win at Franklin & Marshall in 35 years. Kurman led the team with 13 points and senior guard Dillon McGrew scored 10 crucial points as Swarthmore rallied down 10 points midway through the second half for a 73-71 Centennial Conference victory Saturday afternoon.
The last Garnet win in Lancaster was a 68-62 victory in 1972--Swarthmore sweeps the season series for the first time (teams began playing twice in 1994-95) and now owns a three-game win streak over F&M for the first time since 1972 (Garnet won four in a row from 1968-69 to 1971-1972)..
Kurman's shot capped a Swarthmore rally that erased an 11-point halftime deficit. Franklin & Marshall still held a ten-point lead with half of the second period to play, but a four-minute 11-2 run got the Garnet within a point. McGrew put a bow on the run with 6:11 showing, knocking down a three as the shot clock waned to make it 55-54, still in favor of F&M. Adam Leonard responded with a three to make it a four-point Diplomats' lead.
F&M stretched it back to five briefly on a Logan Outerbridge lay-up. He completed the three-point play making it 61-56. Back-to-back doubles by Raul Ordonez cut it back to one, 61-60, with 3:30 left in the game before F&M again benefited from an old-fashioned three-point play from Brandon Chasen to make it 64-60.
Swarthmore finally claimed its first lead of the game with 1:46 left when McGrew picked off a floating pass by Chasen and finished the fast break with a streaking lay-up. A Derek Hines put-back on a Chasen trey recaptured F&M's lead, 69-68, with 1:12 left. McGrew once again answered, this time with a three-pointer that was answered six seconds later by another Hines lay-up drawing the squads even at 71 per side with 30 ticks.
Playing for the last shot, Swarthmore ran 29 seconds off of the clock before Kurman delivered the game-winning basket. An F&M desperation play resulted in a turnover as the clock expired.
McGrew finished the game with ten points, nine of which were scored in the second half. Evan Hamme led all scorers with 16 points to go along with six rebounds. Hines scored 13 and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. In addition to Kurman and McGrew's double-figures in the scoring column, Swarthmore got 11 points from Ian McCormick and Steve Wolf.
After hitting 18 of 32 shots from the field in the first half, Franklin & Marshall connected on just 12 of 30 shots in the second half. Swarthmore hit on 10 of 25 first half shots, but hung around with a five of eight effort from three-point range. The second half shooting by the Garnet hit at a 64 percent rate (a season-best) as Swat knocked down 16 of 25 field goals.
The first half had plenty of action--Wolf re-bounded a Sean Johnson miss from three-point land and scored the put-back to cut F&M's early lead to 11-9 at 15:48. The Diplomats answered on the ensuing possession with a lay-up by Brandon Chasen but Swarthmore's Matt Kurman hit a deep three-pointer to make it a one-point game at 14:57.
F&M (6-9 overall, 5-3 CC) scored the next seven points to grab a 20-12 lead following a jumper by Evan Hamme. The home team continued to force the ball inside with Garnet 6-8 center Ian McCormick, second in the Centennial with 2.3 blocks per game, saddled with foul trouble. The lead grew to 11 at the 5:54 mark on a Patrick Carney jumper.
Swarthmore stayed within striking distance with deadly shooting form three-point. Triples by Kurman (this one from NBA range), junior Noam Fliegelman, senior Chris Casey, and Wolf got the Garnet within 38-31 with 1:07 left. The Diplomats got two quick baskets, the last coming on a fast-break lay-up by Chasen, to take a 42-31 lead into the break.
Wolf led the Garnet with nine points in the first half while Yost paced F&M with nine marks of his own.
Casey, Swarthmore's team captain, played a crucial part in the win, scoring eight points on 3 of 3 shooting with five assists and a season-high five steals in 39 minutes. Casey, the point guard, leads the Centennial with a 3.10 assist-to-turnover ratio and is handing out a career-best 3.5 assists per game. With his five steals on Saturday, Casey jumps to fifth all-time in school history with 101 career thefts.
Swarthmore will return home on Wed., Jan. 17 when bitter rival Haverford comes to Tarble Pavilion for an 8:00 p.m. game.