SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team closed its 2015-16 season with a tough battle against rival Swarthmore on Saturday. The Fords gave the Garnet all they could handle in the first half and had the game at a single point difference with 6:44 to play in the second half before Swarthmore pulled away late in the 76-65 contest.
Kahlil Garnes scored 20 points to lead the Fords on Saturday. Garnes finishes the season with a team-best 12.2 points per game in his freshman season. Saturday's contest was his sixth 20-plus point outing of his first year at Haverford. Classmate Joe Scibelli finished with 18 points on Saturday. Scibelli also grabbed seven rebounds, four of which were defensive. With those stats, the freshman broke the school record for defensive rebounds in a season that was set by Brett Cohen '14 with 148 during the 2013-14 season and matched by Gibby Graves '15 last year. Scibelli pulled down 151 defensive rebounds in his first year at Haverford.
Haverford had three different players reach double figures as sophomore Walt Plumlee added 11 points off the bench. Swarthmore was paced by four 10-plus point outings. Robbie Walsh's double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds highlighted those efforts for the rival Garnet.
During a tightly-contested opening half, the two rivals were tied on three occasions and saw the score change sides on four instances. The final tie of the opening half came at 15-all midway through the first. Although the Garnet hit a three-pointer after that deadlocked scored and held the lead for the remainder of the half, Haverford was still trailing by just one, 32-31, at the break.
Swarthmore's largest lead of the opening half was a seven-point differential, 30-23, with 2:39 remaining. However, the Fords headed into the locker room by scoring eight of the last 10 points in the half. Haverford led by as many as three points in the opening half following baskets from Scibelli and Plumlee in the first seven-plus minutes of game action.
A jump shot from Kahlil Garnes gave back the lead to Haverford following the first possession of the second half. Scibelli matched the Fords' three-point lead from the first half just two possessions later, but a three-ball from the Garnet tied the score at 35-all with 18:31 remaining in regulation.
Swarthmore extended its lead to as many as nine points before Haverford made its last charge in the season finale. The Garnet were up 58-49 with 8:44 to play; however, eight straight points from the Fords' freshman class brought the game within a single point. Scibelli jumpstarted the final run with a three and backed that up with a jump shot on the next trip down the court. Garnes then converted an old fashioned three-point play to make the score 58-57 with 6:44 left in the season.
In the end, the comeback was not meant to be as Swarthmore responded with the next seven points. The host Garnet did not allow another basket from the field until there was less than a minute remaining in the eventual 76-65 victory.