Red Devils Prevail in Cold
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- Garnet junior guard Matt Allen scored a team-high 15 points and senior forward Raul Ordonez added his second consecutive double-double, but cold-shooting in the second half doomed hometown Swarthmore in a 68-59 set-back to Dickinson during Centennial Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon.
The Red Devils improve to 6-3 overall and 1-3 in the Conference while Swarthmore dips to 1-9 overall, 0-4 in the Centennial.
Dickinson center Tom Leszczynski topped all scorers with 18 points while guard Kizmahr Grell added 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Swingman Cory Kenny came off the bench to contribute 14 points for the Red Devils.
Allen (Seattle, Wash. / Lakeside) found his stroke early in the second half, reaching double-digits for the third time this season. Ordonez (Miami, Fla. / Belen Jesuit) tallied 13 points and a game-high 12 boards for his third double-double of the season, adding a pair of blocks for good measure.
A late Red Devil run sent the teams into the locker room knotted at 33-33. Dickinson moved ahead to start the half, assuming a 43-40 lead after a Tim Crouch free-throw at 12:43. Kenny put the Red Devils out front by eight with a driving lay-up and a corner triple. Grell extended the run to 11-3 with a lay-up and a free throw as Dickinson seemed to control the outcome with 8:50 to go, up 51-42.
Ordonez’s turnaround jumper made it 55-47 at 5:34, but Leszczynski converted another strong move over the left shoulder to make it a ten-point lead again. Dickinson held off a final Garnet push in the final minutes for their first Conference win of the year.
The impending storm bearing down on the East Coast must have weighed on the players’ minds, limiting the made baskets in the first ten minutes. Swarthmore forward Sam Lacy ’11 (Jerico, Vt. / Mount Mansfield) drilled a deep three-pointer and stole a Dickinson pass, converting the lay-up for a 5-0 Garnet lead. Lacy would finish the afternoon with 12 points and three steals in 17 foul-ridden minutes of action.
The Red Devils did not enter the scoring column for the first five minutes until Grell drilled an elbow jumper and then finished a fastbreak of his own at 14:28.
Four Swarthmore free throws put the Garnet up 18-10 with 6:29 remaining in the half, seemingly setting off a bit of a scoring splurge. A 12-4 Dickinson run tied the score at 22 –all and the two squads traded three-pointers on the way into the intermission.
Lacy led the Garnet with nine points in the first half while Leszczynski topped all scorers with 12 points.
Swarthmore held a slight 40-38 rebound advantage but the contest swung on Dickinson hitting on 42% of its shots to just 32.8% for the Garnet (a paltry 25.7% in the second half).
The Garnet look to turn its fortunes around in a big way this Tuesday night, visiting 21st-ranked Ursinus in a 7:30 p.m. affair.
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