LANCASTER, Pa.- The Haverford College Men's Basketball team (4-7) suffered a non-conference defeat to Lancaster Bible (6-8), as the Chargers picked up an 86-69 victory over the Fords inside Horst Athletic Center on Wednesday evening.
In the first-ever meeting between the two teams, Lancaster Bible jumped out to a quick 10-4 run. Fresh off a 42-point game in his last contest, Grant Sareyka bolstered the 10-4 scoring stretch with four points.
Back-to-back triples from Gabriel Franklin and Ali Kaan Bek sparked some life into the Haverford offense, as additional free throws from Bek and a layup by Logan Brown got the Fords right back into the contest, trailing the Chargers just 15-14 with 11:27 to go in the first half.
Up by just one point, Lancaster Bible suddenly found some momentum behind the three-point arc, as Sereyka and Seth Beers knocked down consecutive threes to push the Charger lead to 21-14 with 10:32 remaining in the first stanza.
Then, Lancaster Bible raced out to a 19-9 scoring run in just under three-and-a-half minutes, as the three-pointers started raining in for the Chargers. In the scoring stretch, Lancaster Bible went 7-7 from the field and buried five of five from three-point land to take a commanding 40-23 lead. Beers contributed 11 points in the scoring run, with Sareyka posting another five points.
After what seemed to be a knockout blow from the Chargers, the Fords answered with a 7-0 scoring run of their own to pull within 10 points, 40-30, with just over five minutes to go in half number one. The Scarlet and Black went 3-3 from the field, with Nicholas Stewart rattling off three points in the scoring span.
Lancaster Bible went right back to their bread and butter to counter Haverford's scoring run, as the Chargers connected on back-to-back threes yet again, with Beers and Luke Rambaugh finding the bottom of the basket.
A layup from Malachi McDowell and free throws from Brandon Banadda and Logan Brown closed out the first half, with Lancaster Bible leading 48-34.
At halftime, Beers paced all scorers with 17 points, while Nick Klaiber and Kaan Bek led the Fords in points with seven each. The Chargers claimed their big halftime lead by shooting 51.4 percent from the field and stroking 45 percent of their three-point shots.
Both teams traded buckets to start the second half, as Klaiber, Stewart, and Banadda contributed buckets for Haverford, while Sareyka tallied six more points for Lancaster Bible, as the Chargers held a 54-40 lead.
The Scarlet and Black, facing a 14-point deficit, went on a nearly five-minute, 13-7 scoring run to trim the Lancaster Bible lead down to just eight points, 61-53, with 11:05 remaining in the contest. Klaiber posted five points in the stretch, which included the lone three-pointer from the Fords in the scoring span.
The Chargers answered right back, jumping out to a 9-4 scoring run of their own to go up 70-57 with 5:41 left on the scoreboard. Lancaster Bible took advantage of a 1-11 field goal stretch by Haverford, by going 4-8 from the field and 1-3 from behind the three-point arc.
For the remaining five minutes and change, both teams found the bottom of the net, exchanging buckets back-and-forth. However, it was the Chargers who found the edge, outscoring the Fords 16-12 for the rest of the contest. Connor Storr scored seven of the final 16 points for Lancaster Bible, while Franklin totaled six of the final 12 points for the Scarlet and Black, as the Chargers eventually won the contest 86-69.
Leading the way for Haverford in the scoring department was Klaiber, who posted a team-high 16 points. Franklin and Kaan Bek were the other two double-digit scorers, as both players put up 12 points each. On the glass, Brown paced all players on the floor with a game-high 12 rebounds.
Sareyka led all scorers in the contest, dropping 22 points, while Beers added 19 points, and Storr contributed 13 points for the Chargers.
Following the mid-week matchup with Lancaster Bible, the Fords now face a quick turn around, returning to Gooding '84 Arena for a Centennial Conference clash with Dickinson on Saturday, January 6. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m. and will follow the Haverford College Women's basketball game at 1 p.m.