HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College's mens' basketball team suffered a heartbreaking, 61-60, Centennial Conference loss Saturday afternoon to visiting Dickinson College as the winning basket for the Red Devils came with 0.3 seconds on the clock in a game the Fords had led from nearly start to finish.
The outcome ends a three-game win streak for Haverford (9-14, 7-9 CC) which had crept back into contention for the Centennial postseason with the streak. Saturday's loss takes the Fords' fate out of their own hands with two must-win games left to play. Dickinson (14-9, 11-5) clinched a spot in the conference playoffs with the victory.
Haverford certainly opened the game looking like a playoff team, rushing out to a 7-0 lead at the start and building the advantage to 12 points twice during first-half action before settling for a 36-29 edge at the intermission.
During the opening 20 minutes the Fords shot 61 percent from the floor including 2-for-2 from beyond the three-point line. Ian Goldberg scored 11 while Cam Baker added 10 to help the Fords forge their halftime advantage.
The second half was a different story, however, as Haverford experienced a lengthy cold spell over the final 8:28 allowing Dickinson to battle back into the game. After Dickinson pulled within one at 44-43 nearing the 12-minute mark, Haverford put together a 6-0 run and eventually led 55-45 following a Goldberg three-pointer.
The Fords went cold from that point on, though they held onto the lead until the 1:45 mark when Adam Honig's layup gave the Red Devils their first lead of the contest. Baker's driving layup from the right side two possessions later tilted the lead back in Haverford's favor with 89 seconds remaining.
Neither team played its best basketball of the afternoon over those final seconds but a Haverford turnover with 30 seconds remaining gave the Red Devils one last chance.
A missed three-pointer with 13 ticks left looked like the last gasp for Dickinson but a loose ball ended up careening out of bounds and was judged to have nicked off a Haveford player before crossing the sideline. Another last chance, this time with 7.6 seconds showing on the scoreboard, ended up going the Red Devils' way as Honig drove down a mostly cleared-out left side for a strongly-contested layup that would win the game.
Baker finished with a game-high 22 points and moved closer to the 1,000 point plateau with a total of 981 points for his career. Goldberg, with 14 on the day, also inched closer to the same plateau as he has accumulated 983 points over his four years with the program.
Dickinson was led by Thomas McInerney's 14 points while Gerry Wixted added 13 and Honig chipped in with 12. Wixted led all rebounders with eight on the afternoon.
The best the Fords can finish, with two games remaining in the regular season, would be 9-9 within the league. One of the teams just ahead of them, fifth-place Muhlenberg College with an 8-7 Centennial mark, visits Haverford Wednesday night at 8 p.m.
Saturday's contest was also Senior Day for three Fords seniors as Bo Friddell, Goldberg and Joel Michel were honored in a brief pregame ceremony.