Garnet Soar Above Crimson Eagles
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The Swarthmore men's basketball team shot almost 60 percent from the floor in the second half and had five players score in double figures, defeating visiting Philadelphia Biblical 82-41 in non-conference action Monday evening at Tarble Pavilion. The Garnet snapped a four-game skid, improving to 4-11 on the season while the Crimson Eagles fall to 1-13.
The 41 points allowed by Swarthmore is its lowest total since a 51-41 win at Haverford on Feb. 17, 2001 and the margin of victory is the largest in head coach Lee Wimberly’s 20-plus year tenure at Swarthmore (the previous high being a 36-point shellacking of the Fords in 1990-1991). The Garnet have not won by this much since 1984 when they took down Gwynedd-Mercy 99-57 under then-coach Tom Arant.
Senior forward Steve Wolf (Philadelphia, Pa. / Father Judge) led the Garnet with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Classmate Ian McCormick (Seattle, Wash. / University Prep) added 15 points and four blocks, Matt Allen ’10 (Seattle, Wash. / Lakeside) dropped in 13 points with five assists while Matt Kurman '08 (Rockville, Mary. / Walter Johnson) and Raul Ordonez ’09 (Miami, Fla. / Belen Jesuit Prep) contributed 11 points apiece. Senior captain Chris Nana-Sinkam (Lancaster, Pa. / Manheim Twp.) handed out a career-high five assists in his first start of the season (pictured above).
After racing out to a 20-point first half lead on the back of a 15-2 run, the Garnet went to the locker room with a 37-21 lead despite shooting a pedestrian 42% from the floor. A 14-2 advantage in points-off-turnovers and a combined 21 points from Wolf and McCormick provided the Tarble faithful with plenty of confidence headed into the second half.
Swarthmore emerged from the locker room after a quick talk from Wimberly and once the ball was put in play, began raining three-pointers. McCormick and Kurman both hit from deep to build the lead to 45-23 with 18:19 left.
The Garnet marksmen found their classmates back in the stands after the first day of classes in the second semester and put on a shooting display. The Swarthmore three-point barrage reached its peak at the eight-minute mark, dropping in five triples in the span of four minutes to open a 39-point lead (78-39) when Ordonez canned a trey from straight on at 4:04.
Swarthmore sank a season-high 13 three pointers on the night, hitting on 56.5% (13-23) from beyond the arc. The Garnet got three triple apiece from McCormick, Kurman and Allen, hitting 8-of-10 (80%) in the second half alone.
The Garnet men stepped up the defense as well, drawing a season-high four charges while collecting seven blocks (four by McCormick who ranks in the top-five in all of Division III with 3.1 per game). Swarthmore limited the Crimson Eagles to just 30% shooting from the floor and locked down PBU’s leading scorer, Tom Arthur (Forked River, N.J. / Lacey Twp.), who came into the night averaging 22.8 points per game. Arthur would finish with only seven points, yet scrapped together a game-high 13 rebounds.
Junior forward Jon Delgado (Flemington, N.J. / Delaware Valley Regional) led the Crimson Eagles with 10 points while adding five boards.
Swarthmore resumes Centennial Conference action in two days, welcoming the Washington Shoremen to Tarble Pavilion for a 7:30 p.m. match-up.
Click here for the full box score.