SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College women's basketball team cruised past rival Swarthmore on Wednesday evening at the Tarble Pavilion, registering a wire-to-wire 67-44 victory in a Hood Trophy contest. Haverford was led by Macy Goldbach, who poured in 20 points, falling one short of her career high. Freshman Maddie Gallic made an immediate impact, scoring a career-high 16 points, including 13 first half tallies, while adding a career-high six rebounds. Sierra Berkel scored 13 to go with nine rebounds on the night. Haverford extends its overall win streak to seven and improves to 11-4 (8-2 CC) while the Garnet fall to 2-12 (2-7 CC) in defeat.
Gallic recorded 13 of her 16 in the first half of play, helping the Fords to a sizeable halftime advantage. Haverford started the contest on a 9-0 run after Goldbach buried a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 7-0 ahead of a Gallic jumper. The advantage stretched to 14-5 after Gallic connected on a three-point attempt with 2:47 left in the opening quarter.
In the second, Goldbach and Gallic connected for the first eight Fords' points of the stanza, with a Gallic layup pushing the lead to 15 for the Fords at 24-9. Goldbach hit another of her four three-pointers on the night to extend the lead to 27-11 with 6:51 left in the opening half. Berkel hit a layup at the six minute mark to put the Fords up by 18 and Megan Furch made it a 20 point lead with a jumper with just over two minutes left in the second. A 7-0 run by the host Garnet was punctuated by five points from Kayla Sembly as Swarthmore cut into the Fords' advantage, trailing 31-18 at the intermission.
A Berkel layup with 5:21 left in the third quarter restored a 20 point advantage for Haverford at 44-24 and after Berkel completed a three-point play, Goldbach added points in the paint for a 47-24 lead on the next Fords' possession. Haverford took its largest lead of the night at 67-40, extending the lead to 27 with 2:36 remaining in the contest as freshman Hannah Zoll connected on her first career three-point basket.
For the hosts, Audra Woodside led the way with 11 points while Abigail Pirron added eight.
The Fords received a stout defensive effort to stymie the Garnet, holding the hosts to an 18.8 percent shooting night from the field. Samantha Wetzel posted six blocks and Gallic added a pair of rejections.
Haverford went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line for just the second time in program history after achieving the same 11-for-11 feat in Feburary of 2011 against Bryn Mawr.
Haverford has now won three consecutive contests in the overall series and four straight at the Tarble Pavilion. The Fords' seven game overall win streak equals the second longest such streak in program history, with the last instance occurring in February and March of 2014.
Women's Basketball will next return to action with a Saturday matinee against Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Pa. The contest is slated to begin at 1 p.m. On December 1, the Fords defeated the Diplomats 59-39 at the Gooding '84 Arena.