SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Tenth-ranked Swarthmore College Men's Basketball burst out of the gate on Wednesday night at home, building a 32-2 lead before the visiting Muhlenberg College Mules could figure out what hit them.

Swarthmore's dominant performance in the opening 10 minutes of the game propelled the team to its 10th consecutive victory, winning this one by a final score of 84-54.
Swarthmore (14-2 overall, 7-2 Centennial) conceded the game's opening bucket to the Mules (8-8, 5-4 Centennial) but then held them without a bucket for the next nine minutes. The Garnet then rattled off a 30-0 run, only missing eight shots during that span while shooting 61.9 percent. The Garnet shot 58.3 percent for the half. They cooled off in the second half, but still finished at 47.9 percent for the evening.

The two teams entered the contest ranked as the best two defenses against the 3-point shot this season with Swarthmore one (opponents shooting 24.5 percent) and Muhlenberg two (opponents at 25.6 percent). Swarthmore showed that it was worthy of that ranking by holding Muhlenberg to 0-for-9 shooting from deep in the first half and just 5-for-23 (21.7 percent) for the whole game. Muhlenberg did not live up to the statistical ranking and allowed Swarthmore to connect on 10-of-23 3-point attempts (43.5 percent).

Swarthmore's lead ballooned to as large as 45 points with five minutes remaining in the second half, and there was never any doubt that this game belonged to Swarthmore.

Junior forward Zac O'Dell scored a team-high 13 points and flirted with a triple-double after just 23 minutes of court time. He finished with nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists as he exploited Muhlenberg's zone to find teammates on backdoor cuts or popped the ball out to an open shooter on the perimeter.

Swarthmore's ball movement was superb and the team finished with assists on 27 of the team's 35 made field goals.

Ryan Ingram and Conor Harkins each dropped in 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Justin Tucker added 10 points and eight rebounds in an extremely efficient 16 minutes off the bench.
Seven other players scored for the Garnet.

Swarthmore stays close to home with its next contest. The Garnet travel to Collegeville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday to face the Ursinus College Bears at 1 p.m.