BY KEVIN FRIEDENBERG

In print | Published December 7, 2006

The men’s basketball team split its games this week, one a drubbing and one a conference victory. One can argue that the Garnet took home the one that mattered more with a 73-64 win over visiting Franklin & Marshall on Saturday. This win left the men at 1-1 in conference play and 2-4 overall, and it overshadowed the 96-33 loss to Division I Lehigh University last Wednesday.

The game got off to a slow start save for the performance of scoring machine Steve Wolf ‘08, who scored the first 11 Garnet points, combining field goals and trips to the charity stripe. With Wolf’s counterpart Ian McCormick ‘08 shackled by early fouls, it was up to rookie Matt Turner ’10 to break the Wolf scoring monopoly by dropping a jumper to cut the Diplomats’ lead to two with just over ten minutes remaining in the first half. Diplomat senior Derek Hines, who had remained largely quiet for the first half, exploded in a seven-point fury in the final two and a half minutes, giving the Diplomats a lead of 28-23 going into halftime.

While the team has recently struggled to keep pace with opponents in the second half, Swarthmore broke out of that rut with Turner sniping a trey and Wolfe laying in a hook shot to tie the score. McCormick returned to the floor in dramatic fashion, sneaking in a layup to give the Garnet the lead. However, it was quickly snubbed due to the athletic play of Hines, who put the Diplomats back on top. Just when the game seemed to be turning in favor of the Diplomats, Dillon McGrew ‘07 hit a shot from a country mile to put the Garnet back on top. Again Hines shouldered his team’s load by putting F&M back in front before the Garnet’s McCormick and Matt Kurman ’08 decided to take this one home. McCormick drained four of five attempts, cleaned the glass four times, and returned two Diplomat shots to the sender. Kurman, however, decided to unload both barrels, scoring six straight points on his way to a season high 20 points, including a savage four three-pointers. Wolfe and McCormick both ended in double digits for points, scoring 17 and 14 respectively, with Turner adding nine of his own.

“Both teams played hard; it was important to get a conference win,” captain Chris Casey ’07 said. “Our bench really contributed in key minutes.”

Head coach Lee Wimberly agreed. “I said so after the game. I was very pleased that we got some quality performance off the bench,” he said. “If you take care of the ball it’s amazing to see what you can do.”

The game against Lehigh, however, did not go as swimmingly for the Garnet. The Hawks struck gold with a 35-0 run, including a consecutive 12 points from All-Patriot League Jose Olivero after McGrew opened up the scoring with a long ball. Junior Noam Fliegelman ’08 finally stopped the brutality by hitting a jumper with 10 minutes left in the first half. The Garnet bench came out gunning with Sean Johnson ’10 and Danny Walker ’10 providing some deep threats before the half came to a close. The score at the half was a lopsided 51-14, with Lehigh snagging 24 more rebounds than the Garnet while also obliterating its defense with 54 percent shooting. The second half was more of the same for the Garnet. Olivero, coming fresh off a career night at Notre Dame, helped the Hawks to an 82-26 lead with just seven minutes left to play in the second half. McGrew led Swat scorers with eight points while Wolfe and Johnson each added five of their own to the mix.

With the rest of its season games against non-Division I athletes, the Garnet faced Muhlenberg at home on Wednesday, in a game that finished too ate for press time. “We just need to play hard to beat them,” Johnson said. “Post defense and knocking down open shots will be important.”

“We can be really good if we put our minds to it.” Wimberly said.

The Garnet will travel to Ursinus on Saturday at 2 p.m. to continue its schedule.

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