71-66 Loss Delivers Serious Blow to Swat Women’s Basketball Playoff Hopes
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Women’s Basketball
After a thrilling 88-83 double-overtime victory over Franklin & Marshall (8-11, 4-10 CC) on Saturday, the Swarthmore women’s basketball team (9-11, 6-9 CC) remained in playoff contention. Unfortunately, on Monday evening at Tarble Pavillion, the Garnet women lost a 71-66 heartbreaker to McDaniel, delivering a serious blow to Swarthmore playoff hopes.
Against F&M, Genny Pezzola ’12 led the Garnet with a career-high 24-point performance. The Diplomats rallied twice to tie the game on buzzer-beating three-pointers, but couldn’t respond when Pezzola sank her eighth three point field goal of the game with just 1:19 remaining in the second overtime. The shot gave Swarthmore a four-point lead and their second consecutive conference victory.
The Garnet were hot from behind the arc, connecting on a season-high 15 of 28 three-point attempts. Pam Costello ’10 (season-high 18 points) and Pezzola combined to make 12 of 17 from downtown. Fellow juniors Kathryn Stockbower ’11 (17 points and 10 rebounds) and Ceylan Bodur ’11 (14 points and 10 rebounds) each recorded a double-double in the win. It was Stockbower’s tenth consecutive game with a double-double and the 59th of her career.
Last night, Stockbower, Bodur, and Madeline Ross ’13 all had impressive games—with Stockbower downing 19 points and pulling down 9 rebounds and both Bodur and Ross scoring 15 points—but it wasn’t enough.
Early in the second half, the Garnet was up 38-32. McDaniel responded with a 10-0 run to mark the score at 42-38. Despite Pezzola’s heroic four-point play to tie the game up 64-64 with eight minutes on the clock, the Garnet couldn’t keep up, giving McDaniel its 15th straight win.
Men’s Basketball
No. 17 Franklin & Marshall used a balanced attack to defeat the Swarthmore College men’s basketball team 77-47 on Saturday afternoon.
Captain Matt Allen ’10 converted a lay-up with just three minutes gone in the first half to give the Garnet (5-14, 4-8 CC) an early 5-4 lead, but it was all downhill from there for the visitors who shot only 30 percent from the field.
The Diplomats (16-3, 10-2 CC) snapped Swarthmore’s two-game winning steak despite freshman Will Gates’ game-high 22 points. Gates has now had at least a share of the scoring lead in the Garnet’s last nine games.
Freshman Sean Conroe chipped in a career-high seven points off the bench.
Swarthmore will be back Wednesday with an away double-header against Muhlenberg.
Indoor Track
The Swarthmore men’s and women’s indoor track teams both put in strong showings at the McElligott Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
The Garnet men were led by junior Chris Mayer-Bacon’s ninth place finish in the 55m hurdles and 23rd place finish in the 800-meter dash.
Daniel Ly ’12 grabbed a 14th place finish in the 55-meter dash in an impressive 7.05.
In the 400-meter dash, Swarthmore showed its depth with three freshman earning top 20 finishes led by Matthew Heck’s 14th place result in 54.62.
For the women, Kenyetta Givans ’12 took third place in the 55m hurdles with a time of 8.66, the third fastest time in the Swarthmore College record book. Givans also managed a sixth place in the 200-meter dash in 27.88.
Taylor Wuerker ’12 cleared 8’6” in the pole vault, which was good enough for fifth place in both the Invitational and the College’s record book. Hana Lehmann ’13 also leapt her way into the history books with a triple jump of 32’06”.5, earning her sixth place in the Invitational and also in the College’s record book for that event.
Further, Margret Lenfest ’12 ran 2:30.04 in the 800-meter run to give the Garnet another top five finish.
The track teams run again on Saturday at the Haverford Quad Meet.
