SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Entering Wednesday night's Centennial Conference men's basketball games, a logjam at the top of the conference standings had No. 14 Swarthmore College, Johns Hopkins University and Ursinus College all in a three-way tie for first place with 11-3 records.
Swarthmore emerged on top of the league after muscling its way past the visiting Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins 73-55, and after Ursinus took a loss to Washington College.
The Garnet, who have now clinched a spot in the Centennial Conference postseason for the fourth year in a row, improved to 19-3 overall this year and 12-3 in the league.
Swarthmore shot a scalding 57.4 percent from the floor in the contest, the team's third-best mark this season. The only two higher totals have both come in the previous two games (58.2 percent at Washington and 58.8 percent vs. Gettysburg).
The Garnet tabulated a rebounding advantage of 37-22. Seven of Swarthmore's 37 rebounds came off the offensive glass and led to 11 second chance points.
Nine different players scored for Swarthmore with
Zac O'Dell pacing the Garnet with a game-high 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting. On the defensive end, O'Dell recorded a game-high three blocks and added a steal.
Cam Wiley pitched in 15 points for his sixth game in a row with double-digit points.
Freshman
George Visconti added 12 points and six rebounds.
After going ahead 8-5 early, the Garnet gained some separation with a quick 8-0 run capped off with a Visconti 3-pointer at 12:34 in the first. Back-to-back layups by O'Dell put Swarthmore ahead comfortably 36-17 with 3:13 to play, and a steal and fast break layup by Wiley with 1:01 left in the first gave Swarthmore its largest lead of the half at 42-21.
Swarthmore's lead reached 26 with 15:53 left in the second half following a 10-0 run.
Hopkins tried to hang around but couldn't come closer than 13 points the rest of the half.
Swarthmore's pursuit of locking up the top spot in the Centennial Conference and home court advantage in the playoffs continues on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Dickinson College.
