SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Brett Cohen posted a double-double and his Haverford College team rallied from a 14-point deficit behind an 18-0 run, but Roanoke College closed out Saturday's non-conference men's basketball game with a 6-0 run to come away with a 75-72 victory over the Fords in Swarthmore College's Tarble Pavilion on day two of the Equinox Classic.
Cohen (pictured) led Haverford (1-1) with 20 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds to help battle a Maroons (2-0) squad that stormed out to a 32-18 first half lead.
Guard Louis Cipriano's jumper from in the paint with 4:18 remaining in the opening half kick-started the Fords on their run that spanned those final minutes and extended into early second-half action.
Trailing by just four, 32-28, coming out of the intermission, Haverford was able to continue its rally by scoring the first eight points of the second 20-minute session. By the 16-minute mark of the second half the Fords had built a nine-point lead over Roanoke.
The Maroons, however, battled their way back into the game behind a torrid 6-for-10 pace from behind the arc.
Between the 9:51 mark and 3:21 mark the game was tied six times and experienced six lead changes.
Cam Baker, who added 18 points to Haverford's cause, converted a pair of free throws with 2:16 to play to give the Fords a 72-69 lead, but those would be their last points as Roanoke fought back beginning with a successful three-shot trip to the foul line when Kwasi Amponsah was fouled attempting a three-point shot with 100 seconds remaining.
A rebound and tip-in gave the Maroons the lead with 29 to play and after a miss on Haverford's next trip down the floor, one made free throw with two seconds left cemented the outcome.
The Fords and Maroons were pretty square in the rebounding department with Roanoke owning a slim 37-35 edge on the glass. Haverford held the advantage in points off of turnovers converting 24 Maroons miscues into points while Roanoke only netted 16 off of Haverford errors. The Roanoke bench, however, had an impact on the final result as it contributed 22 points to the win while the Fords' reserves added only eight.
Along with Cohen and Baker, Cipriano reached double-digits in scoring posting 17 into the scorebook including a 3-for-6 day from the arc.
Amponsah -- 5-for-5 from the 3-point line -- led Roanoke with a game-high 34 points. Teammate Clay Lacy was the only other Maroon to reach double-figures adding 11.
Saturday's second game at Tarble featured host Swarthmore, which fell to Roanoke Friday night at Haverford in the opening round of the Equinox, and Connecticut College, which lost to the Fords in Friday's late game. ConnCollege defeated the Garnet 76-62.
The Equinox, an event hosted by both Haverford and Swarthmore, is experiencing its 21st season with 2012's games. Named to this season's All-Classic team were Cohen, Amponosah (MVP) and Andrew Daniels from Roanoke, John Bullitt of ConnCollege and Swarthmore's Jay Kober.
Next up for Haverford is its Centennial Conference opener at home in Gooding Arena on Tuesday night against Johns Hopkins University at 8 p.m.