HAVERFORD, Pa. – Louis Cipriano poured in a game-high 21 points and teammate Gibby Graves added 15 Wednesday night in Haverford College's 70-59 Centennnial Conference victory over visiting Swarthmore College in men's basketball action at Gooding Arena.
Haverford (6-8, 2-7 CC) surrendered the first four points of the game to the Garnet (5-11, 2-7) before tying the score at 4-4. After Swarthmore regained the lead on a Jay Kober layup the Fords reeled off an 11-0 run over the next 4 minutes and 42 seconds to take control of the game for good.
The Fords' advantage did dip to four but then increased to double digits before Haverford finished with an 11-point edge, 31-20, entering the halftime break. Second-half action was more of the same as the lead ballooned to as many as 17 and never dropped below nine during the final 20 minutes.
Cipriano scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half which included two of his three three-pointers on the night.
The early run from Haverford was spread evenly between four players beginning with Matt Sherman's layup to tie the score at 6-6. Graves converted a pair of free throw opportunities to provide the Fords with their first lead of the game and Cipriano added to the advantage with his lone trey in the half. Brett Cohen and Lucas Colombo added jumpers to complete the 11-0 streak.
The pro-Haverford crowd grew louder by the minute in the early going of the second stanza with the home team buoyed by a pair of Cipriano threes within the opening four minutes. By the time the lead blossomed to 17 just past the 10-minute mark, the home crowd had escalated to full throat.
Swarthmore pushed back late in the game to finally bring the lead under 10, but the Garnet simply didn't have enough in a contest that marked the eighth straight victory by a Haverford team over Swarthmore since the beginning of the academic year.
Along with Cipriano's and Graves' double-figures night, Cohen also reached that mark with a 10-point night and completed the double-double with 10 rebounds, the last coming on a missed three-pointer in the final shot of the game. He also added three blocks and a pair of steals.
Chris Bourne's 19 points led the Garnet in a losing effort. Swarthmore's Joe Keedy mirrored Cohen on the night with a 10-point, 10-rebound performance.
In the battle with the Garnet for the Hood Trophy, a friendly contest between the two schools, Haverford's Wednesday night victory pushed the score to 7-0 following women's basketball's win over Swarthmore earlier in the night (team's earn 0.5 points for wins in basketball due to playing each other twice during the season). The unbeaten string to start off the annual series is a first for Haverford in the history of the Hood Trophy competition.
Centennial action continues for the Fords in their next outing, Saturday afternoon in Lancaster, Pa., at Franklin & Marshall College.