HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team snapped a 10 game losing skid to McDaniel with a come-from-behind 59-57 victory inside the Gooding '84 Arena on Thursday night. Playing against a team that has given the Fords fits in recent years, Haverford outscored the Green Terror by a 38-25 margin in the second half to come through with its second Centennial Conference win of the season.
First year Jesse Turkson had a huge night for the Fords as he recorded his third double-double with season and game highs in both points (20) and rebounds (15). He was one of three Fords to reach double figures as Joe Scibelli added 13 points while Jonathan Lang finished with 10. Scibelli has finished with a double figure scoring total in 10 of the Fords' 14 games this season, while Lang has hit that mark on 12 occasions so far.
Starting quick in the opening half, Haverford led by as many as five points, 11-6, but the Green Terror held the largest lead of the half with an 11 point advantage heading into the locker rooms at 32-21. McDaniel scored 18 of its 32 first half points from beyond the arc, but would get just nine more in the second period as the Fords began to mount their comeback.
The Fords tied the game for the third time just over seven minutes into the second half when Turkson worked the fast break for two points, knotting the game at 36-all. Those points came as part of a 9-0 run which turned a five point Green Terror lead into a four point Haverford advantage with 11:30 to play. McDaniel managed to tie the game for the final time all night at 42-all with 8:19 left in the half. Nevertheless, Lang answered those points with a trey as Haverford never gave the Green Terror the lead back for the rest of the evening.
Leading by just a single point, 52-51 with 2:31 to play in the game, Haverford got a huge triple from Kahlil Garnes to key a personal 5-0 run. Garnes then added the two next points as he got to the free throw line with 43 seconds to play, ultimately running Haverford's advantage to 57-51. That six point lead ended up being Haverford's largest cushion of the night. The Green Terror came right back with a three-pointer of their own with 33 seconds to play, but Garnes split his next trip at the free throw line to set the score at 58-54 with 15 seconds to play.
McDaniel's final trey of the evening made it a single point game, 58-57, with eight seconds to play. However, Garnes – who finished with eight points on the evening – once again knocked down one of his two free throws with 5.5 seconds to play. That gave McDaniel one final chance to go the length of the court only to see its final layup attempt off the mark as the Fords prevailed by a 59-57 score.
Turkson nearly finished his night with a double-double in the second half as he scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds during the final 20 minutes. His big night on the boards was part of a 46-27 advantage for Haverford in rebounding. Eight of Haverford's 11 players who saw playing time on Thursday came down with at least three rebounds in the total team effort to clean up the glass. That large rebound discrepancy proved pivotal as Haverford had a 15-6 advantage in second chance points on the evening. Even with four primary scorers, the offensive end was still a collective effort as 16 of Haverford's 22 field goals were assisted. Kyle Goldfarb dished out a career-best six helpers, while Lang added four dimes to his stat line. The Fords also got six total blocks, including two each from Scibelli and Turkson in the paint.
Men's basketball will now wrap up its busy three-game week with a trip to Johns Hopkins on Saturday at 1 p.m. That contest will be followed by the women's tip at 3 p.m. against the Blue Jays.