Cold-Shooting Garnet Fall at Dickinson, 52-46
CARLISLE, Pa. - For the second time in 24 hours, poor shooting came back to bite the Swarthmore College men's basketball team.
Playing on consecutive days for the first time in nearly two months, the Garnet (5-17, 4-11) once again could not find any kind of offensive rhythm, shooting a season-low 26.5 percent as homestanding Dickinson (4-17, 4-12) rallied from a halftime deficit to defeat Swarthmore 52-46 on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action.
Gates scored 14 points in the Garnet defeat.
Freshman Will Gates led the way for the Garnet, scoring 14 points and pulling down nine rebounds - marking the 13th consecutive game in which Gates has been Swat's leading scorer. Junior Ryan Carmichael added 10 points and six rebounds.
Dickinson's Matt Dolan scored a game-high 16 points - 14 of which came from the free-throw line. Dolan shot 14-o-f-20 from the line for the game, including 11-of-14 in the second half.
Swarthmore found itself leading the Red Devils 25-21 at the end of the first half, thanks in part to major run to end the first frame. Down 19-11 with just 8:00 remaining left in the first half, Swat finished the half on a 14-2 run - fueled by two three-pointers from Carmichael. Senior captain Matt Allen drilled a jumper as time expired and the momentum appeared to be in Swat's favor heading into the locker room.
But in the second half, Swat's shooting went south - shooting just 17 percent for the half - while Dickinson began to heat up from the field and from the line. Swat could only muster seven points for the first 11 minutes of the half, but still, a pair of free-throws from senior Danny Walker had Swarthmore down just 36-34 with 8:42 left to play.
The Red Devils would maintain the lead down the stretch, extending the Swat deficit to as large as six points with just 2:41 remaining in the game. Allen did his best to keep the Garnet in the game, connecting on two three-pointers in the final two minutes - including a trey with :23 seconds remaining to bring Swat within two at 48-46 -but there was too much of Dolan from the line.The Dickinson junior connected on his final six free-throws in the final minute of play, icing the win for the Red Devils.
Dolan finished with a double-double thanks to his game-high 13 rebounds. The Red Devils finished with a slight 34-33 rebounding edge.
The Garnet returns to action on Monday from Tarble Pavilion, when Johns Hopkins makes its much-delayed appearance. Action is slated to begin at 8:00 p.m.