BY JARED NOLAN

In print | Published February 5, 2009

Last week the Swarthmore men’s basketball team ended a four-game homestand with contests against arch-rival Haverford (9-9, 6-6 CC) on Wednesday and the top team in the Centennial Conference, Franklin & Marshall (17-2, 10-2 CC), on Saturday. The Garnet dropped both games and their record fell to 1-17 overall (0-12 CC). Even though the matches ultimately resulted in defeats, the Garnet hotly contested both matches.

As expected, the crowds turned out to witness the Haverford-Swarthmore rivalry match, but even with the fan support the Garnet could not get over the hump and remains winless in the conference. The team put together two solid halves, however, and stayed in the game for the entire 40 minutes. Neither team led by more than four points, the lead changed seven times, and there were eight ties.
Throughout the first half, both sides exchanged blows and entered the break knotted at 21-21. The Fords and the Garnet continued to swap baskets in the second half, when halfway through the 20-minute period Haverford stretched the lead to four. Swarthmore responded with a lay-up by co-captain Raul Ordonez ’09. Sam Lacy ’11 stymied the Fords’ next two possessions single-handedly with a block (he had five that night) and a steal. He then pulled the Garnet within one point of the lead with a free throw. Ordonez scored the next basket with 5:42 left in the game to put Swarthmore up by one. It was a put-back of a missed three-pointer, a play that brought Swat fans to their feet, where they remained for the rest of the game.

That lead proved to be Swarthmore’s last of the game, however, and the Fords capitalized on a number of Garnet miscues. With 1:32 left in the game, Ryan Carmichael ’11 cut the deficit to one with two free throws, but Swarthmore squandered their opportunity at the lead when Lacy committed an untimely offensive foul. Haverford used the window to push the score to 43-40, and multiple last-second three-point attempts by Swarthmore came up short.

The Garnet’s player of the game was Carmichael, who tied a career-high with a game-high 18 points. Four of his baskets came beyond the three-point arc, an outright career-high. Carmichael has elevated his play in the last couple games, filling in for injured guard/forward Danny Walker ’10.
Co-captain Matt Allen ’10 commended Carmichael’s play. “He’s been a lot more aggressive,” he said. “When he’s confident and aggressive, it’s so much easier for him. He’s really helping us stay in a lot of games.” Allen said that he would like to see himself step up his game like Carmichael has been doing recently, because everyone needs to step up for this team to win. “We just need to have a game where we have a more well-rounded team effort,” he said.

Carmichael continued his efficient play into the Franklin & Marshall game, filling up the stat sheet with 15 points, four assists and four rebounds. Ordonez, the only senior on the Garnet’s squad, was also a dominant force, posting beastly game-highs of 20 points and 13 rebounds.
On paper, Swarthmore and Franklin & Marshall seem like opposites. The Diplomats are at the top of the conference, while Swarthmore rests at the bottom. The Diplomats are first with a +10.6 scoring margin, while Swarthmore is last with a margin of -14.2. The Diplomats sink the highest percent of their shots (over half), while the Garnet make only 39.6 percent of their field goals, the worst percentage in the conference.

There is one significant similarity, however; each team only has one senior. But Swarthmore’s case is a little different because Ordonez is such an integral part of the team. “Raul is someone that we’re really going to have a hard time replacing, both as a leader and as a presence down low,” Allen said.
Despite the fact that both teams are young, the game was well fought. During the first ten minutes of the contest, each team held a four-point lead, and the Garnet closed the Diplomats to one off a three-pointer by Michael Giannangeli ’12 to bring the score to 17-18. From there, however, Franklin & Marshall went on a 7-0 run that spanned five minutes.

Swarthmore whittled the lead back down to four before it ballooned to 12 right before the half, but the Garnet caught the Diplomats off guard. With five seconds left in the half Ordonez grabbed a defensive rebound, and after a series of passes it ended up in Carmichael’s hands a couple steps inside of half-court. He sank a three-pointer which beat the buzzer and sent the teams into the half with Franklin & Marshall up 40-31.

The Diplomats opened the second period with a 10-2 run and it seemed they would coast to victory, but Swarthmore remained within striking distance for the entire game. With three minutes left in the second half, Ordonez and Carmichael combined to score seven straight points for the Garnet and cut the deficit to eight points, but Franklin & Marshall regrouped and answered with two baskets in a row to put the game away for good. The Diplomats won by a final score of 70-60.

This outcome is much more favorable for the Garnet than the two teams’ earlier meeting in the season, when Franklin & Marshall won 92-67. “When we played them earlier in the year, we were blown out,” Allen said. “But we played better defense and we executed well.” Allen noted another positive. “Offensively we were a lot more patient,” he said. “We slowed the tempo of the game down, which is what we needed to do to win the game.” Since the Garnet was able to do this, the outcome of the game might have been different if the team was also able to knock down shots, which Allen deemed the Garnet’s Achilles’ heel.

Another area of concern for the Garnet is points in the paint. In the last two games, the team has been outscored 66-28 around the basket. Allen noted that in the Franklin & Marshall game, the Diplomats were able to thwart his team’s press and get easy lay-ups, which contributed to this discrepancy. Ordonez highlighted this same concern and also said that the inside scoring was due to “offensive rebounding on their part. They were able to get a lot of second-chance points.” As a solution, he noted that the team just has to make sure to box out.

Look for the Garnet’s points in the paint to rise this weekend, however, as proven off-the-dribble scorer Danny Walker ’10 returns to action at Dickinson on Saturday at 4:00 PM. He said that his time on the bench has been frustrating, but that it has given him an opportunity to analyze his team. “I’ve had a chance to look at our team play and see what things they’re doing well and what needs to be improved. I’m going to try to fill in the gaps that are missing,” he said. “Sitting on the bench has inspired me to play to win games.”

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