HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's basketball team (4-10, 1-6 CC) was defeated by visiting McDaniel (6-7, 2-5 CC) Thursday evening at Gooding '84 Arena as the Green Terror withstood the Fords, securing a road win by a final score of 66-58. Haverford outscored the visitors 38-34 in the second half, but a 12-2 run to end the first period helped give McDaniel the cushion it needed to prevail. 

First-year guard Nick Klaiber led all scorers with 24 points, one of three Haverford players in double-figure scoring. The total was just one point shy of Klaiber's career high, set on November 28 at Ursinus. Klaiber has now tallied double-digit scoring in 11 of his 14 career games played. Gaven Marr added 11 points, while Gabriel Franklin poured in 10. Ali Kaan Bek made his first career start and chipped in nine points. Defensively, Logan Brown helped set the tone with three blocks and a steal.

McDaniel saw three double-figure scorers, paced by Lorin Hall, who added 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting. David Kearney narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Chuck Contee poured in 11.

After a sluggish offensive start for both teams, the squads began to turn on the jets offensively, with Klaiber and Hall each converting jumpers as the score was knotted at 6-6 with 15:43 remaining. McDaniel pulled ahead 10-6 on Brendan Kade's three-point play, but Franklin answered with a triple on the other end. Kaan Bek pulled his squad back within one with 11:45 to play in the first, and Franklin then connected from long range again to give Haverford a 14-12 lead with 10:10 to go.

The game hovered within a one-possession contest for much of the first half, with Kearney adding back-to-back buckets to put his squad up 18-16 with 6:28 remaining. Hall helped kickstart the McDaniel run with a jumper, and Contee gave the Green Terror a seven-point cushion with 2:20 to go. Joey Reiling got into the action with a three, and suddenly, Haverford was facing a 12-point deficit at intermission as the Fords were held scoreless for the final 2:50 of the first half.

Undaunted, Haverford began the second on a 7-0 spurt, keyed by a Marr three-pointer, and pulled back to within six on a Klaiber triple with 15:22 to play. Jonas Sujeta, the leading scorer for the Green Terror entering the contest, slowly began to come to life offensively, pouring in a three that restored a nine-point McDaniel cushion with under 14 to play.

Marr and Klaiber did well to keep Haverford within striking distance, but a Kevin Connelly three with 10:01 to go in regulation put the visitors up 14. The Fords looked to whittle down that advantage, turning to Marr again with 7:03 to play. Kaan Bek splashed down a three-pointer with 4:59 reading on the clock, but the Fords were still facing a 13-point hole. Klaiber had a pair of successful trips to the bucket in the last few minutes, and Haverford was back within 10 with just a minute left.

Unfortunately for the Fords, at that point, McDaniel was content to close things out at the charity stripe. Haverford got the contest back to single digits on another Klaiber three with 23 seconds to go, and Marr tallied with 15 seconds showing on the clock to reflect a valiant comeback bid that fell seven points shy.

McDaniel narrowly outshot Haverford, holding a 42.1 to 41.7 edge from the field. The Green Terror connected on eight of 19 from beyond the arc, while the Fords converted six three-pointers on 13 attempts. The rebounding advantage belonged to the visitors, as they pulled down 41 rebounds to just 26 for the Fords.

Haverford now turns its focus to a Saturday matinee matchup against Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The contest with the Blue Jays will be the second game of a men's and women's basketball doubleheader, with the men's contest expected to tip off at approximately 3 p.m. inside Goldfarb Gymnasium.