SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The season came to a close Saturday for Haverford College's men's basketball team as the Fords dropped an 80-63 Centennial Conference decision at Tarble Pavilion to host Swarthmore College.
Senior Louis Cipriano led Haverford's efforts with a team-high 17 points, which tied the Garnet's Joe Keedy for game-high honors. The loss leaves the Fords' record for the year at 8-16 overall and 4-14 in the Centennial. Swarthmore improves to 8-17 and 5-13, respectively, with the win which gives the Garnet their first points of the year in the Hood Trophy competition between the two schools.
The Hood standings through the winter season, with indoor track & field finishing up next weekend, sit at 7.5–0.5 in favor of the Fords after Saturday's results. Earlier in the day the Haverford women's basketball team downed host Swarthmore in overtime to put the Fords in first place in the league standings, earning the women the right to host the conference postseason tournament's semifinals and championship game.
Saturday's men's game saw six ties and three lead changes, but all in the first half as Swarthmore was able to maintain its halftime lead all the way to the game's final buzzer.
Early action Saturday was the normal feeling out process for both teams, with the score flip-flopping and neither team breaking out to an advantage greater than four points.
Swarthmore took control at the 12:24 mark with things tied at 15-15, reeling off an 8-0 run over 78 seconds to leap ahead by a score of 23-15.
With the advantage the same, but the score now 25-17 at the 7:32 mark, Haverford battled back to knot things up at 29-29 before taking a 37-34 lead with 59 ticks left in the half.
A three-pointer by Keedy pulled Swarthmore to within one and then Karl Barkley's trey with two seconds remaining allowed the Garnet to steal back the lead, 39-37, as the teams entered the intermission.
Haverford pulled within one at 41-40 and then again at 43-42 but an 11-2 streak from the Garnet gave the home team their first double-digit lead of the day.
James Levine drained a three-pointer for Haverford to end the Swarthmore run but that seven-point deficit would be as close as the Fords would get over the final 13:40.
Matt Sherman joined Cipriano scoring in double-figures as the freshman went for 14 on the day while adding in a pair of assists. Senior Brett Cohen pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds to go along with four points in his final collegiate game. Cohen's 1,199 career points and 756 rebounds rank eighth and fifth, respectively, in program history. Cipriano's trio of three-pointers Saturday gave the senior 131 for his career, fourth-most in program history.
Also making their final appearances in Haverford uniforms, and joining Cipriano and Cohen on the floor over the closing minutes of Saturday's game, were fellow seniors Geoff Hartmann, who contributed six points, Sean Bernhard and Jordan Taylor.