SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Despite the outside shots not falling for the Garnet, No. 23 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball found a way to win at home on Wednesday night against the Ursinus College Bears.
The Garnet shot a season-low 5-of-33 (15.2 percent) from 3-point range and 22-for-63 (34.9 percent) overall but held off the Bears 61-53.
After tough losses at the buzzer in the previous two games, Swarthmore showed its resiliency by playing a strong final two minutes to secure Wednesday's win. Swarthmore improved to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in conference action while Ursinus dipped to 4-4, 2-2 CC.
Cam Wiley led the Garnet with 11 points and Colin Shaw pitched in 10 points. Zac O'Dell chipped in nine. Four players, George Visconti, Nate Shafer, Abass Sallah and Justin Tucker, scored seven points each.
O'Dell led all players with 11 rebounds and also had three blocks, two steals and two assists. Shafer added nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists, and Wiley grabbed seven boards and dealt out four assists.
Both O'Dell and Shafer corralled six offensive rebounds to help extend possessions and lead Swarthmore to a statistical win in the rebound category 46-40. As a team, the Garnet posted 19 second-chance points off of offensive rebounds.
Eric Williams Jr. paced Ursinus with 21 points.
Swarthmore started the game out on an 11-2 run and led by 10 with 8:14 to go in the half. However, a 3-pointer by Williams Jr. sparked a 10-0 run for the Bears to even the score with 3:50 left in the period. The Bears held the slimmest of leads at halftime, 25-24.
In the second half, the Garnet began to pick away at Ursinus's 2-3 zone by locating a big man flashing to the high post and finding options from there. Defensively, Swarthmore kept Ursinus without a field goal for a five minute span midway through the second half and built an 11-point lead with 6:45 to play. Swarthmore limited Ursinus to just 31.7 percent shooting overall on the night.
Ursinus narrowed the gap to three points in the final two minutes, but an O'Dell layup and 5-of-6 shooting from the free-throw line the rest of the way sealed the game for the Garnet.
Next up for Swarthmore is a trip to Allentown, Pennsylvania, for a date with Muhlenberg College on Saturday. Swarthmore looks to avenge a road overtime loss suffered at Muhlenberg last season.
