HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team battled Dickinson on Saturdayafternoon inside the Gooding '84 Arena. Another strong defensive start from the Fords held the visiting Red Devils to just 10-of-33 shooting in the opening half. However, the Red Devils' offense shot just under 50 percent over the final 20 minutes to pull away late in the second half with a 73-54 Centennial Conference victory.
Joe Scibelli starred on Saturday for Haverford with a double-double that featured 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. Scibelli grabbed 12 of those rebounds in the opening half on his way to the most rebounds by a Haverford player in a single game since Brett Cohen '14 pulled down 17 rebounds against Washington College during his senior season. Also excelling on the defensive end was Josh Fried as he blocked five shots on the afternoon, tying him for sixth in school history during a single game. The last person to block five shots in a game was Gibby Graves '15 at home against Ursinus a season ago. Haverford blocked eight shots in total on the afternoon, the ninth highest total in program history.
In addition to Scibelli's production on the offensive end, Kyle Goldfarb set a new career-high with 13 points and four rebounds. Anthony Reyes also reached double figures for the second straight game with 11 on the afternoon, all of which came during the second half of action. Dickinson's Ted Hinnenkamp just missed a double-double with a game-high 19 points and nine rebounds. Robert Picka came off the bench to score 10 points and record seven rebounds for the Red Devils.
The game started off with each team swapping 6-0 runs. Dickinson went out first, but four straight points from Scibelli and a layup from Goldfarb knotted the game with just over three minutes gone by in the contest. The teams were tied on two other occasions before Haverford took its first lead of the afternoon, 14-12, when Walt Plumlee knocked down a jump shot midway through the opening half.
Coming back to tie the score at 14-all, Dickinson used those points to start a 13-0 run. Kahlil Garnes snapped the Fords' scoreless stretch with a layup in the lane and later added two more free throws on the ensuing offensive possession to cut the lead into single digits after the first 20 minutes.
Dickinson scored the first four points of the second half to jump ahead by 14; however, back-to-back baskets from Goldfarb made it a 10-point game. The Fords followed that up by shrinking their deficit all the way down to seven points after Henry Stevens came up with a steal on the defensive end and a three-pointer from Scibelli made the score 32-25 with 17:09 and prompted a timeout from the Dickinson bench.
After the Red Devils answered with a three-pointer, Reyes kept the deficit at seven points when he hit from beyond the arc. Nonetheless, a second big run from Dickinson – this stretch an 8-0 spurt – made the score 43-28. This time, the Red Devils kept their hot shooting until the final buzzer en route to the conference victory.
Men's basketball is now set to embark on three-game road trip around the Centennial Conference. Two of those games will come during the upcoming week of conference action. The Fords will first head to Ursinus Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tip. Next Saturday, Haverford will head to Baltimore for a 3 p.m. scheduled start against Johns Hopkins.