HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team got a big bounce back performance with a 67-50 victory over visiting Washington College on Thursday evening inside the Gooding '84 Arena. The Fords (3-3, 1-1 CC) led nearly wire-to-wire, shooting just under 50% for the night while holding the Shoremen to a 28.3% mark from the field. Haverford also held a significant 45-31 advantage on the boards.
Joe Scibelli recorded his 13th career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The double-double was the first this season for the Centennial Conference's active leader in that category. First year Jesse Turkson added his first career double-double with 11 points and a season-best 13 rebounds on the night, while Kahlil Garnes led all scorers with 21 points. Garnes now has 10 career 20-plus point outings, three of which have come in his five career games against WAC. The Fords' victory was their sixth straight against the Shoremen.
Washington College scored the first two points of the contest and held its second and final lead of the contest just 2:08 into game action. Jonathan Lang's layup off a pass from Joe Wujciak made the score 6-5 in favor of the Fords just 18 seconds later and the hosts never look back over the remaining 37-plus minutes of game action. That basket from Lang started an 8-0 run for Haverford to give the Fords a 12-5 lead just under five minutes into the contest.
After a three-pointer from the Shoremen, who did not have a player reach double figures on the scoring column, Haverford had its largest run of the half with 10 straight points to take a 22-8 lead just under nine minutes into the conference matchup. Combining the two runs, Haverford rung up an 18-3 margin during just 6:24 of playing time.
Washington College came back with eight straight, but the Fords closed the half strong and led 35-23 as the teams headed to the locker rooms after 20 minutes. Haverford had a 14-2 advantage on points in the paint during the first half, leading 9-2 in second chance points during that time. Over the entire contest, the Fords owned a 32-12 scoring advantage in the paint.
Haverford really turned up the offensive intensity out of the halftime break, shooting over 59% in the second half. Over those final 20 minutes, WAC could not trim Haverford's lead to single digits – trailing by exactly 10 on two occasions in the period. Haverford's final big run came right after that second occasion as the Fords ran off 12 straight points, holding the Shoremen without a point for five straight minutes. Garnes, who was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc on the evening, hit two of his triples during that span to give the Fords a game-high 22 point lead at 57-35 with 8:32 showing on the clock.
The Fords never led by less than 16 for the remainder of the contest, securing a 17 point victory by a final score of 67-50. On the defensive end, Haverford came away with nine steals and blocked six shots. On top of his double-double, Turkson snatched a game-high four steals and tied for the team lead with Sam Stogdon as both players rejected a pair of Shoremen shots.
Men's basketball will now head out on the road for a pair of Centennial Conference meetings. Up first, will be a trip to Franklin & Marshall this Saturday to complete the team's three game week. Tip off in Lancaster on Saturday against the Diplomats, a team receiving votes in the latest D3Hoops.com national poll, is set for 3 p.m.