ALLENTOWN, Pa. – It was a wire-to-wire victory Saturday evening as the Haverford College men's basketball team notched its first win of the 2015-16 campaign. The victory came via a 90-83 score against Albright in the second day of the MAC-Centennial Tournament. The second day of action was hosted by Muhlenberg.
Three monster games on the offensive end led the way for Haverford (1-1). Walt Plumlee dropped a career-high 30 points to lead the offense. Plumlee went 9-of-19 from the floor and made four three-pointers on the night. Kahlil Garnes backed up his impressive collegiate debut with 23 points during Saturday's win. Matt Sherman nearly made it three players with 20-plus points for the winning side as he scored 19. DeJuan Smith led Albright (0-2) with 21 points for the Lions.
The Fords got the jump from seemingly the opening tip as they scored the first five points of the contest and then went on an 11-0 run after the Lions' first basket for a commanding 16-2 lead just over six and a half minutes into the game. Garnes and Plumlee evenly split the first 10 points among themselves before back-to-back layups from Sherman and Josh Fried pushed the lead to 12. Plumlee capped the 11-0 run with his seventh point of the game.
Albright began to finds it rhythm midway through the opening half, but the quick start from Haverford still had the Lions still facing a 10-point deficit halfway through the opening frame. Defense was the name of the game for Haverford in the final 10 minutes of the half.
The Lions did get within three points on two occasions in the final minutes of the opening half. During the second time the contest was a single possession affair, Plumlee went to work down low and converted an old fashioned three point play to put his team up 27-21. Haverford then led by at least six points for the remainder of the half. A three-pointer from well beyond the arc with just one second remaining from Sherman padded the lead to a 38-29 edge heading into the locker room.
During the second half, Albright got the game down to a single possession on a couple of occasions. Each time the Haverford offense answered. With the score 48-47, Sherman hit a three-pointer and was fouled for a four-point play to put his team up by five with 14 minutes to play. Henry Stevens answered a Lions' three-pointer as he freed himself up for a jumper. After two free throws from Albright, Haverford got a defensive stop and corresponding three-pointer from Plumlee with 12:14 to play. Later, a pair of free throws from Sherman made the score 56-51 with 11:30 play.
Albright did not get the game back to a single possession difference until there was 7:28 remaining in the game. This time, it was Barnes that stepped into back-to-back three-pointers to stretch the Fords' lead to 65-60 and eventually 68-63 with just over six minutes to play. Finally, a three from Plumlee – the Fords' third consecutive triple in as many trips down the court – made the score 71-65 before Haverford held at least a two possession cushion for the remainder of the victory.
With one minute to play, the Lions were still fighting and trailed by just five. However, the Fords went on to hit six straight free throws and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe in the final minute of play to salt away the 90-83 win.
The Lions made 32 field goals for the game, compared to just 27 from the Fords. However, Haverford more than made up for that discrepancy with 27 points at the free throw line. Garnes contributed nine of those points, while Plumlee was 8-of-9 at the line. On the other hand, Albright was just 11-of-26 on its free throw attempts in defeat.
Men's basketball will now return to the Calvin J. Gooding '84 Arena this Wednesday for its home opener. The Fords begin their home slate against Penn State-Harrisburg with a 7 p.m. tip. That contest will be the final tune up before Centennial Conference play starts with an early conference meeting the following week at Washington College.