Rally Falls Short as Garnet Fall to Arcadia 62-56
GLENSIDE, Pa. - Sophomore Marc Rogalski scored a career-high 22 points and the Swarthmore men's basketball team erased a 14-point halftime deficit, but it was too little, too late, as homestanding Arcadia hung on for the 62-56 victory over the Garnet on Tuesday evening.
Rogalski finished with a career-high 22 points.
Rogalski also pulled down 12 rebounds for the double-double and senior captain Matt Allen added 11 points - nine in the second half - as Swarthmore (0-3) dug itself an 18-point first-half hole, but nearly fought all the way back for the comeback win.
Down 37-23 heading into the second-half, the Garnet made an immediate charge - outscoring the Knights 8-2 in the first three minutes of the first half to bring the Garnet back into the game at 39-31.
The game would hover around an eight-to-10 contest for the next 10 minutes - with the Garnet staying into the contest thanks to improved defense and the scoring of Rogalski and Allen - until Swarthmore made its final charge with just under eight minutes to play.
Down 51-43, back-to-back lay-ups by Rogalski and Allen made it 51-47 with 6:01 remaining to play. Then at the 4:36 mark, a jumper from Allen cut the lead to two points at 51-49. But from there, the Knights regrouped and the Garnet would get no closer. The Garnet offense would only manage to score two points over the next four minutes of play, while a lay-up from Arcadia's Glen Gargon's with 1:02 extended the lead to 57-51 and put the Knights firmly in control.
Chris Pearson led the Knights (2-2) with 17 points, while Gargon finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Arcadia scored 24 points off of 21 Garnet turnovers, while Swarthmore finished with 33-16 edge in bench points.
Freshman Jordan Martinez led the team with seven assists.
The Garnet return to action on Monday, November 30, with a trip to Moravian.