BALTIMORE—In a grudge match of last season's Centennial Conference Championship, No. 8 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball duked it out with the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays on Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Garnet, the game did not end in their favor as they took their first loss of the 2018-19 season, 59-57.

The last three contests with the Blue Jays have all come down to the wire with Hopkins escaping with a two-point win in the regular season in 2017-18, a four-point win in the championship in 2018 and now another two-point margin.

Swarthmore held onto a six-point lead with less than six minutes to go on Thursday, but Hopkins struck for a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to take the lead at 54-51.

The Garnet trailed by five with 53 seconds left but battled back. Cam Wiley drained a 3-pointer to bring Swarthmore within two with 33 seconds left. George Visconti plucked the ball from Hopkins on the following possession and that led to a successful layup from Zac O'Dell with just 25 seconds remaining, evening the score at 57-57.

Hopkins held for the last shot and took a tough jump shot in the game's final seconds from the elbow that was defended well by Wiley. The jump shot fell way short of the rim, but the air ball was caught in mid-air and tipped in by Hopkins' Harry O'Neil with 0.6 seconds remaining.

Down 59-57, Swarthmore got off one last chance with Wiley heaving a shot from beyond half-court that nearly won the game at the buzzer but instead rimmed out.

O'Dell led Swarthmore with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-3 attempts from 3-point range. O'Dell also snagged 10 rebounds, three of the offensive variety. Visconti finished with 14 points on a 6-of-17 night. Wiley and Nate Shafer both added seven points. Shafer finished with 10 rebounds to help Swarthmore win the rebounding battle 35-34.

Swarthmore's trips to the free-throw line were minimal on Thursday as the Garnet went just 4-for-9 from the stripe. Nine attempts is by far the team's lowest total in a game this season. The team had been averaging 20 attempts per game entering today's game.

Swarthmore looks to bounce back from the conference loss with a game against another tough Centennial opponent on Saturday. The Garnet host the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats at 3 p.m.