COLLEGEVILLE, Pa.—No. 10 Swarthmore College Men's Basketball had its 10-game win streak snapped on Saturday afternoon on the road at Ursinus College. The Garnet (14-3, 7-3 Centennial) held a five-point lead at halftime, but Ursinus (10-7, 7-3) surged in the second half thanks in part to 24 successful free throws.
Ursinus out-scored the Garnet 57-46 in the second half while shooting 65.2 percent from the floor and held on for a 94-88 win, the Bears first win against the Garnet in the last 10 tries.
Swarthmore forward
Nate Shafer tied his season high in points this year by dropping in 19 points on 7-of-9 field goal attempts and a 5-for-7 day at the free-throw line. He grabbed five rebounds and had three blocks and a steal.
Shafer was one of six Swarthmore players to score at least 10 points.
Cam Wiley netted 18 points and dealt out six assists.
Conor Harkins connected on three 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Freshman
George Visconti returned to the starting lineup and finished with 12 points on four 3-pointers.
Justin Tucker pitched in 11 points off the bench and added four rebounds.
Zac O'Dell came up with 10 points, nine rebounds, and four assists.
Ursinus's Eric Williams Jr. went off, scoring a game-high 30 points while shooting 8-for-11 from the floor and 9-of-9 from the free-throw line. The Bears bench provided 0 points as all five starters scored at least 10 points.
The Bears earned 37 free-throw attempts in the contest and converted 33 of those chances (89.2 percent). The 37 attempts is the most by an opponent this season. Swarthmore went 15-for-18 (83.3 percent), its second-best night at the charity stripe. This is the second time this season that an opponent had 19 more free throws than the Garnet (the last time was at Muhlenburg in December).
Swarthmore finished the game with 28 boards while Ursinus gathered 33. Only two other teams all season have out-rebounded Swarthmore (Arcadia and Middlebury; both wins for Swarthmore).
Swarthmore built an early first-half lead, going on a 10-3 run to start. However, Ursinus responded with a 17-3 stint of their own to turn the tables.
Harkins sank a basket in the lane with 12:25 left in the first half to bring the score even again at 20-20. Ursinus temporarily took the lead back, but then Swarthmore went on a 10-2 to close out the half and take a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
Swarthmore led for the first two minutes of the second half, but couldn't hold off the Bears. Ursinus took over and didn't relinquish the lead the rest of the way. Swarthmore made things interesting in the final minute after a Wiley 3-pointer made it a four-point deficit with 58 seconds to go.
After Saturday's result, both Swarthmore and Ursinus are tied for second place in the conference, two games back of Johns Hopkins University.
Swarthmore is back in action at home on Thursday at 8 p.m. against Haverford College.